South Central Windward incumbent, lawyer Saboto Caesar, has criticised his challenger, Israel Bruce, for defending in court the men who were accused of robbing his wife in 2018.
The five men were freed of the charges on July 22, 2020, when Caesar’s wife, Reisha Twana Browne-Caesar, a physician, told the court that she was not offering any evidence against them.
Caesar was present when his wife informed the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court that she had come to the decision of her own free will but that she had not forgiven the men.
Caesar did not raise the issue of Bruce representing the men in the 2020 election campaign, in which Caesar was returned to office for a third consecutive five-year term by 219 votes, down from the 588 votes five years earlier.
However, five years later, Caesar has raised the alleged robbery of his wife twice while campaigning with his Unity Labour Party (ULP) in South Central Windward.
Bruce, a candidate for the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), rejected Caesar’s argument, saying on Hot 97 that a lawyer cannot turn away a potential client because the person they are alleged to have committed a crime against is related to a parliamentarian.
He also questioned whether Caesar played a role in his wife’s decision to drop the case.
“He wife lie down in the bed next to you — if she lie done next to him at all, I don’t know — and you get up and you decide that you’re not going to proceed with the matter.
“You must have discussed that with your good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good husband. So, he must have been part of that decision. Let him answer why.”
On Nov. 12, in Mt Grenan, Caesar, 44, a national scholar, told ULP supporters that when he returned to St. Vincent as a lawyer, aged 24, Bruce had not yet touched a law book.
“… and I could remember, and I want to say this here tonight, because this one touched me personally. My wife was heading home one night, and when she got into the yard, four gunmen robbed her. The next morning, you know who was the lawyer going to defend the gunman? Israel Bruce!
“You have bad mind, and that is why the people of South Central Windward — you’re too low down. You must never take a case like that, you’re a nappy chinks lawyer. You nappy chinks lawyer, yo. Go and study your law book.”
Caesar said that as a lawyer, he would not defend anyone who is accused of robbing Bruce’s relatives.
“I will tell them, go to somebody else. Go to somebody else, because that is a principle. That is my parliamentary colleague. But no he begging he bread. He gone ah courts the next day to defend a man who put a gun by my wife neck.”
Caesar raised the issue again on Thursday in Higher Lowman, telling the campaigning event that Bruce could not sleep since he had mentioned the case in Mt Grenan.
“I have no respect for Israel,” Caesar said, adding that his wife was several months pregnant when she was robbed.
In a call to Hot 97 FM on Thursday, Bruce said that a lawyer has an ethical duty towards clients and prospective clients.
“So that I simply do not tell somebody who comes to me to seek legal services that I am not representing them because the person who you are alleged to have robbed is a member of parliament, that I’m a member of parliament. That is not one of the qualifications to compel me to withdraw my service.”
Bruce said Caesar should have been happy that the men were being represented by a “nappy chinks” lawyer.
The opposition candidate, however, said that more importantly, was the decision by Caesar’s wife to not offer evidence against the accused.
When asked why Caesar’s wife had taken this decision, Bruce, referring to Caesar, responded, “Ask the man who know everything.”
Asked how the justice system work if people against whom crimes are allegedly committed do not offer evidence, Bruce said, “… the Office of the DPP is left blindfolded and handcuffed behind its back.
“They can’t do anything. They simply have to withdraw the matter.”
A host of the show suggested that such a decision potentially leaves the wider public vulnerable
“… it is not only just a vulnerability standing on its own. It is standing in an era when the same minister and his cabinet said that they will be tough on crime and the causes of crime,” Bruce said.
“So, you can’t even manage a crime, allegedly, against your wife, is the whole country crime you go manage?
“And people wonder why we have all these killings and no appropriate response by the state.”
He noted that Caesar had said that Bruce, as a parliamentary colleague, should not have agreed to defend the accused robbers.
“That is the same man who sat in Parliament and watched police officers toss Godwin Friday, toss Daniel Cummings, toss Terrance Ollivierre, toss Vynnette Frederick and among them, and he sat there with the glee on his face. He didn’t remember that those were his parliamentary colleagues.”
Bruce was speaking about an incident in March 2011, when the House Speaker Hendrick Alexander instructed police to physically remove opposition lawmakers from Parliament.
Why would Mr Caesar, who is said to be among SVG’s brightest and best, raise this in this season? What did he hope to gain? Well… unless he is confident that he is speaking to people without critical thinking skills who are unable to read, absorb and interpret information. Unless he knows for sure that his reasoning will be well received by people who are slaves of emotion….
Added to what Mr. Bruce said, is the fact that Caesar has no moral compass.
This same Caesar who said “Ralph has no moral authority to speak for him,” sits in parliament and praises a man who is alleged to RAPE a police officer. Rather than answer in court and prove his innocense, his lord opted instead to use his position, to have the DPP nolle prosse the matter. Mr. Caesar supports this atrocity
Again this same man told his son to take “dignified silence” after his son was alleged to abuse a beautiful, young lady. Where was Mr. Caesar’s moral compass in this matters? So he (Mr. Caesar) still sits in the circle, supporting and defending all the alleged wife beaters, batterers and abusers of women in society; a lot of them are alleged to be within the ULP hierarchy …. So where are his morals then?
To come and want to prey on Bruce in a personal way is therefore DISHONEST, HYPOCRITICAL and a DOWNRIGHT SHAME. Mr. Caesar claims to be a “man of GOD” so let’s ask him “does GOD teach us that our moral should be dependent on the person accused?”
We have to seriously reevaluate what we perceive as ugly. We must be more objective as far as those things are concerned.
Saboto take a hike! You didn’t try to protect your family from those culprits and I am not sure why they were not charged when all the evidence was there. I remember telling his wife to “trade him in” because of his neglect.