There is more litigation to come, says attorney for Frederick

Keith Scotland, defence attorney for Vynnette Frederick, has promised that there is more litigation to come in relation to his client.

The Trinidad based attorney spoke to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, one day after the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) agreed that the Crown was abusing the Court’s process by appealing to the Court of Appeal and re-lodging nine similar charges against his client.

“I feel very vindicated when the judgement came out, because we were always of the respectful view that that was an abuse of process what they were doing to Vynnette Frederick,” Scotland said.

The attorney said the fact that the appeal court ordered that his client be paid costs is, in his view, significant, as it is rare for costs to be awarded in a criminal case.

“They ordered costs – to my mind, this was a matter that warranted costs to be paid,” Scotland said, adding that the judgement was handed down by a “strong quorum” of the appeal court, made up of Chief Justice Janice Pereira, Justice Mario Michel

and acting Justice Paul Webster.

Scotland said while the nine charges against Frederick (related to making false declarations, swearing falsely and fabricating evidence) cannot be resurrected, there is more litigation to come in relation to his client.

“I can tell you, there is more to come with respect to Vynnette. We are not lying down on this matter…. This is not the end of litigation,” Scotland declared.

He declined to elaborate on what could be expected, but said he will be doing his research and in the next two weeks or so, more will be revealed.