Andrew "Pawpa" Brown is a step closer to becoming a free man tonight after his attorneys scored a major victory in his fight against extradition to the United States.
The upset came this morning when Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord ruled that tapes by a U.S. special agent would not be admitted into evidence. "Pawpa" Brown and his older brother Floyd, aka Joswant, are wanted in Florida for importing drugs and those tapes are of recorded calls between "Pawpa" Brown and Manuel Luis Rena, the man who was actually caught with the drugs. Lord ruled that while hearsay is admissible in extradition proceedings, the Special Agent Sheree Gordon would have had to personally record or transcribe the tapes. No evidence was shown that Gordon did and so Lord ruled that case law binds him to reject the evidence. The Brown brothers' legal team made the submission and Lead Attorney Dean Barrow says that with the lynchpin against "Pawpa" Brown thrown out - there is no case.
Dean Barrow, Attorney for Brown Brothers
"This really guts the case of the prosecution. Without those tapes,
and because the other material in Ms. Gordon's affidavit, Sheree Gordon who is the Customs and Drug Enforcement Officer in the U.S., because the other material in her affidavit is all hearsay, i.e. what Rena told her and what Steve Reneau told her, none of whom is a witness in this case, it does appear to me that that really is, practically speaking, the end of it."
Keith Swift,
What happens next? We know you will be back in court tomorrow.
Dean Barrow,
"Well I am sure Mr. Kaseke, the Solicitor General, will try as best he can to repair the damage and I am not going to underestimate the good gentleman so I expect that there will perhaps be another skirmish or two tomorrow. But I really don't see that there can be any serious recovery from what has happened. I think today was a knockout blow for the prosecution.
I believe that except if there are stalling tactics, the case should finish by Friday and I don't know whether the Magistrate will want to rule immediately. In the normal course he likes to give a written decision but if the case has collapsed, as I think it has, there would not be too much point in doing anything but a cursory written ruling. So if all goes well he could be out by Friday indeed."
For the first time in the 4 weeks that he has been going to court, "Pawpa" Brown emerged from court late this morning without a towel over his head. "Pawpa" did that as he waved to a small group of less than a dozen picketers who had gathered outside of the Magistrate's Court on Bishop Street. The protest was peaceful with participants remaining in a constant procession and carrying placards in support of the Brown brothers. Both brothers will be back in court tomorrow.
We should note that while the news is good for Pawpa - the fate of Floyd aka Joswant is still up in the uncertain since they are dealing with the brothers separately. 7NEWS understands that the Brown legal team headed by Barrow and rounded out by Richard "Dickie" Bradley and Ellis Arnold may apply for bail for Floyd Brown. The United States' government's case is being represented by Belize's Solicitor General Elson Kaseke.
