‘Withdraw the report ... wheel and come again!’
DONOVAN GRAHAM, Winchroy Budhoo, Everton Tabannah, Steve Waugh, and Mario Pratt were the cops named in the enquiry report and were recommended barred from participating in internal police operations. Budhoo died in May.
Overton has joined the Public Defender and Terrence Williams, who heads the Independent Commission of Investigations, in calling for the withdrawal of the report, which Commissioner of Police George Quallo has declared he was standing by.
“I find that a lot of what is in there was subjective. There is no benchmark to which those things are being held. For that reason, I believe we have ended up with a very unfortunate position that this review committee has really absolved everybody of the findings of the West Kingston Commission,” Overton said.
He said that the task of the JCF review committee, which was chaired by senior cop Wray Palmer, was not to criticise the enquiry’s report, but “to look at the points and see whether there was room for improvement or not, whether there was misconduct or not”.
“I do believe that there needs to be a withdrawal, and I’d almost want to say wheel and come again,” added Overton, who chairs the security and justice committee of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica.
While there is general support for the JCF review in the Police High Command, concerns have been raised about the report by some senior cops, a source has told The Gleaner.
Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte has said that she would provide an opinion on the legal standing of the report.