As DPP Kirk Anderson gets ready to leave office at the end of the year, insiders would argue that the beginning of the end came when Anderson's office insisted that Ben Abou-Nehra be charged for the murder of Shawn Copious. Police famously resisted that interpretation and refused to upgrade the charge against the businessman.
Unable to lay the charge himself, the DPP has stated that his office will indict Abou-Nehra for murder when the case comes up in the January 2007 session of the Supreme Court. But according to today's Reporter, that may now be wishful thinking. That's because Abou-Nehra's statement, in which he states that he killed Copious, has mysteriously disappeared from the case file. In it, Abou-Nehra stated that Copious advanced on him with a knife, and he shot him in self-defense.
DPP Anderson told The Reporter that the statement would have been inadmissible anyway and its absence does not weaken the case. That, we might add, is not the considered opinion of others in the legal community we have spoken with.
Still, the story is about the mysterious missing statement. Apparently there is some dispute over who lost it as both the CIB Office and the DPP's office are pointing at each other.
