NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The former executive chairman of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) and current opposition legislator, Adrian Gibson, has gone on trial here charged with several other people with several offenses, including money laundering and fraud.
Gibson and former WSC general manager Elwood Donaldson, Jr, Rashae Gibson, Gibson’s cousin, Joan Knowles, Peaches Farquharson, and Jerome Missick face 98 charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, fraud, receiving, and money laundering.
They have denied the allegations.
But when the matter began before Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson on Monday, the attorney for Gibson said he had filed a constitutional motion to force an in-person testimony from a key witness.
Murrio Ducille, KC, will on Wednesday argue the constitutional motion that is seeking a stay of the proceedings because Gibson has been “prejudiced in his defense.”
In June 2022, Gibson, the Parliament for Long Island member, was charged with 96 counts that stemmed from alleged misconduct while serving as the WSC executive chairman.
Prosecutors allege that Gibson illegally received over US$1.25 million from contracts awarded by the corporation during his tenure as chairman.
Lucille served the court and the prosecution with the constitutional motion on Monday, the day before jury selection was scheduled to begin. Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson is also expected to indicate when witnesses will appear.
In September last year, Lucille asked Justice Grant-Thompson to step down from the case because her late husband, Peter Bethell, was a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Cabinet minister.
“Your husband was once a minister of the government under the PLP, and Adrian Gibson is a member of the opposition party. So, what would a fair-minded bystander looking at it all perceive? It’s nothing personal concerning your ladyship, but another judge should hear the matter.”
Grant-Thompson rejected the recusal application, noting that her late husband died in 2000, and she had since remarried.
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