…as Police, lawyers clash over allegations put to accused
DCEO Roxanne Myers
Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers remains in custody as the Guyana Police Force continues to investigate attempts to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Myers was arrested on Tuesday after she turned herself in at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters moments before the Police Force issue a Wanted Bulletin for her arrest.
The GPF, in a statement on Wednesday morning, said its ranks have been trying for over a month to question the DCEO in relation to its investigation into electoral fraud at the March 2 polls.
“However, those efforts were futile, as Ms. Myers made every effort to elude the Police investigators,” the GPF said.
The GPF went on to explain that a Wanted Bulletin was consequently prepared, but before it was released, the DCEO showed up at CID in the company of her attorneys.
According to the Police, “Ms. Myers was promptly arrested for the offence of “conspiracy to defraud” and she was told of the allegation at the said time. She then exercised her right to remain silent.”
But Ronald Daniels, one of the lawyers representing the DCEO, has refuted the account provided by the Police Force, contending that his client was arrested for “perverting the course of justice”. In a statement, the attorney explained that he remained with Myers throughout her interrogation, which was captured on video and was conducted by Head of Major Crimes Unit, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mitchell Caesar, and Inspector Nigel Stephens, along with Corporal Desmond Johnny as the operator of the video equipment.
Attorney Daniels claimed that from the outset, he asked whether Myers was being treated as a suspect in the commission of any offence and ASP Caesar “explicitly responded that she was not a suspect”.
Daniels, in his statement, released what he says is a “a substantively verbatim record of the questions ASP Caesar asked Ms. Myers and her responses”.
The missive detailed 11 questions posed to the DCEO to which her response to each one was “I reserve my right to remain silent.”
The lawyer related that after the interrogation, Caesar and Stephens left the room and returned a few minutes later, when Caesar said “Counsel, I will [now] have to put an allegation to your client for perverting the course of justice… Ms. Myers, it is alleged that you are perverting the course of justice, and as such you will be placed in custody. During the course of the investigations we will have persons to confront you with.”
According to Attorney Daniels, his client was asked to exit the room and was placed into the custody of two female officers, who were instructed to book Myers and take her to Beterverwagting Police Station.
“I maintain that at no time did ASP Caesar, Insp. Stephens, or any other Police officer on or off camera put the allegation of ‘conspiracy to defraud’ to Ms. Myers,” the lawyer argued.
However, the Police in their missive on Wednesday morning, maintained that “Ms Myers was not detained by the Police because she remained silent, contrary to statements attributed to Mr [Nigel] Hughes (another one of the DCEO’s lawyers) in the press. This is a distortion of the truth, and the GPF rejects same.”
Efforts to solicit a further response from the Police on the statement released by Attorney Daniels on Wednesday evening were futile.
Last month, the Police said it was launching a probe after “formal reports” were received alleging “criminal conduct” by Chief Elections officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and embattled Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, as well as others in relation to the elections and the events that followed thereafter.
Only two weeks ago, Lowenfield was arrested and the allegations of electoral fraud were put to him, but he, too, exercised his right to remain silent. He was eventually released on $100,000 bail and has to report to the CID HQ.
The CEO is being accused of attempting to undermine the will of the people by repeatedly refusing to submit the verified results from the national recount to Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh, for a final declaration.
The national recount exercise showed that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes. But Lowenfield had repeatedly refused to submit his final elections report with those figures despite being so directed by the GECOM Chair on several occasions. He eventually complied, paving the way for the declaration and subsequent swearing in of the new government on August 2, 2020 – five months after elections were held.
However, even as the Police probe is ongoing, Lowenfield is already facing three private criminal charges for conspiracy to commit fraud and breach of trust in public office. Those charges were filed by private citizens Desmond Morian and Josh Kanhai, who is a member of The New Movement (TNM) party.
The CEO was arraigned back in July and placed on $450,000 bail.
Meanwhile, the police have since arrested and charged several GECOM staff members, including RO Mingo.
During the recount exercise, it was unearthed that Mingo heavily inflated the figures in Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting District – in favour of the caretaker APNU/AFC regime.
He was charged and arraigned last month on four counts of misconduct in public office, and was placed on $600,000 bail. He is also facing private criminal charges filed by PPP/C’s election agent Charles Ramson Jr. for forging official electoral documents in an effort to defraud the country.
