D.P.P. says she is investigating firearm case of Reynaldo Verde?

Reynaldo Verde’s name has come up quite frequently lately in discussions of the Firearms Act, or more accurately, as one of the very few who has managed to escape its net. Verde, a senior employee of the General Sales Tax Department, was detained on January third when a Police search allegedly yielded an illegal firearm in a wash-house on his property. Like everybody else caught in the same circumstances, Verde was escorted to the Raccoon Street Police Station to be charged, but he wasn’t. In fact, he was released that same day after reported intervention on his behalf by several senior Police Officers. The exact circumstances of the search and seizure haven’t received nearly as much attention as the fact that for almost anyone else, there would have been immediate mandatory remand. D.P.P. Vidal is currently conducting her own investigations because she also had questions in the matter.

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Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecutions

Cheryl-Lynn Vidal

“It happened in fact that I knew nothing of the incident until I was called by somebody in the media who asked me for comment on the matter, and I knew nothing about it. I thereafter looked into it. By that time Mr. Verde had already been released after a witness statement was recorded from him, which is a very clear indication that Police did not at any time have any intention to charge him. I requested the statements and they were provided to me the following week and I looked into them. The defence that is being raised by Mr. Verde is one which indeed the Police should have investigated. And I don’t want to ever be interpreted as suggesting that the Police were wrong to investigate. My point has always been…why investigate for Mr. Verde but not for everyone else. Because invariably when people are taken into the station, especially with this type of offence, they have something to say about it. They raise some defence in relation to it. And I have not heard of any case before where the Police have gone out in that fashion to actually verify any of the facts being raised by the people in custody. And this was not a case in which one person went, or two people went. Three senior officers found themselves on the scene to investigate.”

Marleni Cuellar

“Do you then at that time seek to verify the facts as was presented to you?”

Cheryl-Lynn Vidal

“So this is what we have been trying to do. It’s a little more time consuming when you’re not going to rely on the Police who are responsible for the case to get it done, but this is what we have been doing.”