We also spoke to the two lead counsels, Elson Kaseke for Jose Coye and Senior Counsel Rodwell Williams for Alfred Schakron. They discussed their positions with us.
Elson Kaseke, Attorney for Jose Coye
“He said he never made the complaint but yet he wrote a letter which I read out in court in which you heard he said he is withdrawing the complaint which he made against Mr. Coye. Fourthly he did not only request a withdrawal of the complaint, he requested that the charges be dropped. If he did not commence the charges, how could he have asked for the charges against Mr. Coye be dropped?”
Rodwell Williams, Attorney for Alfred Schakron
“My client indicated he made a bargain with Mr. Coye and that Mr. Coye requested him to pay $275,000 in cash and that he would ask Mr. Flowers
to collect it. That the money was paid, Mr. Flowers collected it, and in return he was given the Putt Putt land and he got the title for his land after a couple weeks after that deal went down. And he said that was the deal he bargained for, he got it, and he was quite happy to move on. As it turned out, it didn’t happen that way.”
Elson Kaseke,
“The job correctly in my view pointed out this is a matter of credibility so in assessing the credibility, we have to look whether Mr. Coye was ever at the scene if, and that is a big if, any money exchanged hands. We have to look whether anyone saw the money exchanging hands. We have to look if there is documentary evidence proving money changed hands. Look, this man, he really blemished the character and reputation of Mr. Coye on his ‘say so’ and at the end of the day he wants to come and say he didn’t make a complaint when he wrote a letter saying I wish to withdraw the complaint which I made. If he was forced to make the complaint in the first place as he said where was his fear of the force when he withdrew the complaint. This in my professional opinion simply goes to show the maliciousness of the prosecution in the first place.”
Rodwell Williams,
“Well certainly I am confident and I draw your attention to the judge’s closing remarks, we are not alleging we are defending. Mr. Coye has to prove and you already can see from the remarks that in the face of the evidence that certainly is a tall order for him to establish that there was a malicious prosecution but certainly we will make that case in our written submission that there was no malicious prosecution.”
Justice Legall has set February 11th for submission of closing arguments. Thereafter he will set a date for judgement. Again Coye is seeking $50,000 for legal fees in addition to compensation for damage to his reputation. Coye is also being represented by Anthony Sylvestre while Michel Chebat is also appearing for Alfred Schakron.
