April 26, 2011

Myrie case triggers reminders

BY TONY BEST | FRI, APRIL 15, 2011 - 10:00 AM

Names such as Tawana Brawley, Maryam Muhammad, Steven Pagones, Alton Maddox, C. Vernon Mason and Henry Crist are unlikely to ring many bells in Barbados or Jamaica.

But to a criminal investigator in New York City, they mean quite a lot. As a young lawyer in the late 1980s he followed an unfolding drama that involved those names and attracted national and international attention.

Twenty-four years later, he isn’t quite sure who or what to believe, except that he is leaning to accept the findings of a special grand jury that looked into the high-profile case.

Hence, when emotions ran high in Jamaica and Barbados after Shanique Myrie levelled explosive charges that she was “finger-raped” by a female immigration officer at Grantley Adams International Airport and Barbados’ Foreign Minister, Senator Maxine McLean, rejected the charges as being “baseless,” the attorney offered a word of caution to both sides.

“I believe Barbadians and Jamaicans should let investigators do their work, carefully and independently,” said the man who requested anonymity because of the position he holds in the city.

“The Tawana Brawley case offers a poignant reminder about how things can go horribly wrong and how passions can be inflamed when we rush to judgement.”


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