Verbal clash upstages ACP's testimony

By David Williams, Freelance Writer

A STORMY verbal confrontation involving attorney Abe Dabdoub and chairman of the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry, Justice Julius Isaac, yesterday threatened to derail the work of the less than two-week old commission, with some attorneys contending the incident could devalue the integrity of the process.

The clash, which had apparently brewed since last week, played itself out shortly before the lunch-time adjournment and upstaged the testimony of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Arthur Martin, who was being cross-examined Mr. Dabdoub.

Things erupted after Mr. Dabdoub, res-ponding to an objection from attorney Jacqueline Sa-muels-Brown, pointed out what he felt was a pattern of objections amounting to "a coaching of the witness".

Mr. Dabdoub, who is appearing for Opposition Leader, Edward Seaga, was advised by the chairman he should ask the witness to leave the room when he felt objections were being by made attorneys which could influence the witness' answers and he should stop "whining and complaining".

Mr. Dabdoub insisted he was not complaining.

"Well, I know what you're doing," the chairman said, "but it's okay, I'll be euphemistic about it and say you're complaining, okay? Don't look at them (the television cameras). You don't need to look at them. They're taking your picture," he observed suggesting the attorney was playing to the press.

An obviously upset Mr. Dabdoub shot back at the chairman from behind the podium: "You know, Sir, I must say that that remark is out of order and offensive and I don't intend to sit here and have you be offensive to me. You're ascribing to me motives for carrying out my duties and I resent that."

"I'm telling you, don't look at the camera," the chairman responded.

Heads of the legal teams representing the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the Attorney General's Chambers, the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), as well as Commission Counsel Velma Hylton, were quick on their feet to denounce Mr. Dabdoub's behaviour.

But in response, Mr. Dabdoub said he could not be accused of being rude by opposing lawyers some of whom, he said, had hurled racial slurs at him during previous hearings.

"You (Mr. Chairman) have accused me at least three times of playing to the press. I'm not playing to the press. Anybody who knows me knows I conduct myself very vigorously when I am in a case," he said to Justice Isaac.

Mrs. Hylton described the behaviour displayed as "absolutely and totally improper" and denigrating of the entire process being conducted and asked that Mr. Dabdoub receive some sanction.

"This is not how we are schooled; this is really an aberration," an apologetic Cordell Green, appearing for the Attorney General's Department, told the Grenadian-born Justice Isaac, who currently practices in Canada.

Mr. Dabdoub told the chairman he was willing to withdraw the words but not to apologise for his intention to have said them and even as he tendered what was meant to be an apology to Justice Isaac, sotto voce taunts of "Quashie, Quashie", apparently directed at Mr. Dabdoub, were heard coming from attorneys sitting near the press section.

"So far, as I'm concerned, the apology you attempted to proffer is not an apology," said an unamused Justice Isaac, who adjourned the hearing and consulted fellow Commissioners Dr. Hyacinthe Ellis and Rev. Garnet Brown on the matter.

Attorneys Patrick Atkinson, Dorothy Lightbourne, Oswald James, and Alexander Williams, who are jointly representing the Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens Citizens' Associations with Mr. Dabdoub quickly huddled together in conference with him at the adjournment.

After apologies from Mr. Atkinson and Ms. Lightbourne on Mr. Dabdoub's behalf when the hearing resumed later in the afternoon at the Mutual Life Centre in Kingston, the attorney and Member of Parliament for North-East St. Catherine himself apologised to the commission. This was after he was given the option of apologising and withdrawing his words "unreservedly and unconditionally", or being suspended from hearings until October 5, which would have meant his missing seven sittings of the Commission.

Mr. Dabdoub then completed his cross-examination of ACP Martin without further incident.

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