PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad– The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard, Thursday announced that he was discontinuing a charge of misbehavior in office against former government minister Marlene McDonald.
But at a virtual hearing, Gaspard told Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle that the six other charges, including three of conspiracy to defraud, two of misbehaving in public office, and one of money laundering, would continue.
The notice of discontinuing the charge of misbehavior in public office was dated March 25. It was made according to the DPP’s powers under section 90 of the Constitution, allowing him to discontinue any criminal proceedings undertaken by him or anyone else before judgment is delivered.
McDonald, a former public administration minister sacked by Prime Minister Rowley in 2019, has been charged with four others on several offenses of conspiracy to defraud the Government.
The four include her long-time companion Michael Carew, contractors Wayne Anthony and Victor McEachrane, and Edgar Zepherine, a former chairman of the National Commission for Self Help.
The five-faced 49 charges of attempting to defraud the Government by allegedly procuring funds for Carew’s Calabar Foundation under the guise that it was a charity.
McDonald’s has been on two million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) bail, while the others are on bail ranging from TT$100,000 to one million dollars.
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