Tonight, there are new revelations from the case file documenting the December 2017 murder of Fareed Ahmad - for which Police Constable Michelle Brown was tried and acquitted.
Following through on his commitment, Commissioner Chester Williams opened the case file to the media using expert criminal attorney Dickie Bradley as an interlocutor.
We gave you a small snippet last night but because of the lengthy exposition of the contents of that file which happened in the evening - we didn't have time to put it all together. We have done so tonight with the evidence led by Bradley. In the end he concluded that there should be a new criminal investigation into Elmer Nah - who Michelle Brown fingered in her statement from the dock. Here's a look at what Bradley found in the file.
Yesterday we brought you some of the first revelations from the Michelle Brown file, which Commissioner of Police Chester Williams was confident enough to re-open for perusal by attorney Dickie Bradley.
And some of those revelations are very compelling:
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"I saw that in fact several members of the SAT were interviewed and gave statements on various matters. Several of those who were interviewed did not work on the squad that Nah was working on that night they worked with Michelle Brown and they reported off duty right here at the station and said a couple of things which at this stage is not of importance except that two officers confirmed that they would normally drop her home and that night she said it's not necessary someone will pick her up. In fact, they say she was. Crying at the Faber's road station while she was completing the paperwork for the tour of duty. And they kept asking her what is happening this is not like you and she answered, I straight, I straight as they insisted to take her home said no someone will pick her up."
Bradley then turned to the weeks following Ahmad's murder saying that his family began to receive threats from two numbers now known to be associated with Elmer Nah.
posted (January 3, 2018)
Abdul Ahmad, Brother Of the Deceased
"We are in fear of our lives at this point. I mean in regards to the details of the text messages I reported on that the families and the authorities now have in their possession. The details of those messages are very disturbing whereby members of my family, my families name were called whereby inside those messages indicated members of my family that are next on the hit list."
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"There is no indication to the investigators that there was a third person in the vehicle. Now, in the various statements a family member of the Ahmad on the fifth day of January 2018. A family member felt it necessary to make contact with the police to report that the family is receiving threats on their text and it emerged that there were two numbers from which those texts were coming from and when inspector Serefino got that message as he has in his report that caused him to feel there is a need to investigate the people in the SAT and that is how there is a statement in the file from Mr. Elmer Nah."
"An investigation was launched. BTL was brought into the picture and so on and it was confirmed that the two cell numbers from where the threats are emanating were numbers connected to Elmer Nah."
"Investigation revealed that, yes the two numbers are Mr Nah's numbers and he gave a statements which confirmed that he was sending the threats."
And with all that new evidence, the question arose as to what merit there would be into a new investigation of Elmer Nah's possible involvement in Farheed Ahmad's death.
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"That's a hard question, Romero would be the better man to answer. He is one of the best investigators in the police department. This is what 3 and 2 almost 5 years since the incident, um, yes, yes. I listened to Jules Vasquez interviewing himself this morning, I see Cherisse di shake ih head and he was saying that the two parties involved are to take the blame that, a section of the police had, in his words were empowered and allowed to get away with these things."
"In no democracy you can have an employee and an agent of the state paid by taxpayers' money, having that kind of allegation and that is what has frightened the nation. That this man who is now being accused of a double murder in, in the most graphic scene that we have seen. We always hear that they kill people and shoot people but we haven't seen that kind of thing. It means, if it is through--you the state you the government have that man in your force all this while when he was being singled out as the person to have fired the fatal shot. That is what you are responsible for causing because you should have cleared that up and had that man's name cleared."
And in his final statements on the matter Bradley wasn't shy about chiding the government for the massive failings that have fueled the rumor mill with the perception of a policeman turned predator embodied in Elmer Nah. And two years ago, the apex allegation against Nah was made by Michelle Brown
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"So that we do not have a member of the police department who did that terrible thing, how you could left that lone my boy? How could you? How could you just sit back and allow that? Look how quickly they will holler, we will get a special prosecutor to make sure they, but they didn't say anything, when time, when that information emerged. They didn't say anything, it's not very long you know, just in December of 2020 that information happened. So, you all know because you read more than me in those areas there but you all know that 20 years afterwards, thirty years afterwards. The most dynamic democracies in Belize, they release people out of prison for rape and for murder and say that they always had the wrong man. Can you imagine? How can you hear that you in your police force somebody with rank is now being accused by his fellow officer. It could be a lie, God willing one day Michelle Brown tells us that she only said the because she was fighting for her own freedom or whatever. But is it fair to him, to his children? Is it fair to all the officers that you all say so and so."
And while that conclusion is likely not one that the COMPOL expected or desired, he resigned himself to say quote: "At no point in time during the entire investigation did any of the witnesses interviewed make mention to their being a third person in the vehicle." End quote.
