Prosecutors pulled out the big guns in District Court Wednesday, hoping to lock in the case against V.I. law enforcement officers Enid Edwards, Francis Brooks and Bill John-Baptiste, but defense attorneys lashed back under cross, pushing through the holes in some crucial witness testimony.
The original 33-count indictment against veteran V.I. Police officers Edwards and Brooks was handed down in June and ran the gamut from extortion to kidnapping, including incidences of assault, battery and illegal narcotics distribution. Four separate incidents of drug trafficking, extortion and fraud tacked on in September added 21 counts onto the already loaded docket, which jurors began to consider Monday as the officers’ trial opened in District Court on St. Thomas.
John-Baptiste, a V.I. Port Authority officer, is mentioned in only a few of the counts, and is accused of sexually assaulting and detaining a female taxi driver, who allegedly paid Edwards and Brooks an undisclosed amount of money in exchange for her release.
The second day of trial ended Tuesday with testimony from Elias Deeb, an FBI informant who detailed how he paid Edwards and Brooks $900 to get him a new V.I. driver’s license. While on the stand, Deeb said he had a valid license in 2004, but wasn’t able to renew it in 2006 because his immigration identification had expired. The FBI supplied the $900 after Deeb told them he could renew it through Edwards and Brooks, then participated in a series of phone calls and meetings with the officers that were tape or video recorded by the feds.
Under cross examination, however, Deeb said Brooks was not involved in any transactions dealing with the license, but was a point of contact when Deeb needed to get a hold of Edwards.
Deeb was still on the stand when the trial picked up again Wednesday, ready for cross examination by Edwards’ defense attorney Jay Shreenath, who focused on an application for asylum Deeb filled out in 2004.
While on the stand Tuesday, Deeb said he had come to the territory illegally from Saint Martin, which is what he wrote on the form. At the time, Shreenath said Deeb had actually come over from Antigua, and when asked why he wrote down the wrong place, Deeb said he wasn’t able to read and write English well.
On Wednesday, Shreenath recalled the testimony and used it as an alibi, saying that Deeb, because of the language barrier, often solicited the help of officers such as Brooks and Edwards to help him do the routine tasks — like renewing a driver’s license — that he couldn’t get done on his own.
Financial Crimes
Edwards alone is charged in the indictment with a financial crime called "structuring," which is meant to skirt certain federal reporting regulations. Prosecutors have alleged that Edwards made two $9,000 deposits at FirstBank in May 2008, then in July 2009 wrote checks totaling $9,900 and $9,500 made out to herself or to cash.
Called to the stand Wednesday was FirstBank’s records custodian Unia Isaac-Brooks, who brought along the deposit slips for the transactions in question. Under cross examination by Shreenath, Isaac-Brooks explained that the bank would have had to file currency transaction report for any deposit of more than $10,000, and said later that there’s no reason – given the dollar figures of the deposits – that such a report would have been triggered in this case.
Drug Dealing Cops
Counts 39 through 52 of the indictment break down into two separate incidents, ranging from around March 2008 to June 2009. Counts 39 to 47 cover the first incident, in which Brooks and Edwards allegedly forced someone to buy $3,500 – or 4.5 ounces – worth of crack cocaine in exchange for not filing an illegal firearms possession report against them.
Associated charges include: racketeering-related offenses, robbery, solicitation and receipt of a bribe, conflict of interest and drug-trafficking conspiracy for possession with the intent to distribute "50 and more" grams of cocaine.
Drug trafficking conspiracy is also part of the charges that cover counts 48 to 52, in which Brooks and Edwards are said, according to court documents, to have detained a group of individuals on the street, then released them after allegedly taking their money and drugs.
Called to the stand Wednesday were Kelvin Moses and Troy Willocks, both convicted drug dealers who detailed their interactions with the two officers. While Moses said Edwards and Brooks forced him to pay $800 for three stacks of marijuana that he said were valued at $1,600 a pound, Willocks said he saw Brooks, during a shakedown in Savan, pocket some pot from a dealer, and drive off without arresting anyone in his group.
When asked if there was anyone who could verify his story, Willocks said the young man who Brooks took the drugs from is now dead. Under questioning from Shreenath, Willocks – who was recently convicted of cocaine possession – said he understood he was facing "substantial" jail time, but did not harbor any hope that he would be getting a reduction in his sentence for testifying against Edwards and Brooks.
Moses, meanwhile, still has not been sentenced, and told the court Wednesday that he began talking to the authorities about his illegal activities after his conviction last May in hopes of getting some leniency from the judge in his sentence. Moses also said he has known Edwards and Brooks for about a decade, and had to pay them $50 once or twice a month in exchange for information on possible FBI informants or dealers that were working with the police.
John-Baptiste’s Day in Court
For the past couple of days, John-Baptiste and his camp have remained relatively quiet, but were able to flex their muscles Wednesday after testimony from Yvese Calixte, the local taxi driver that John-Baptiste is accused of sexually assaulting.
On the stand, Calixte broke down as she recounted – through an interpreter speaking her native Creole – how John-Baptiste pulled her from her safari while she was exiting the Red Hook ferry terminal in early February 2008, forced her to the ground and restrained her for an hour until police arrived at the scene.
Calixte said that after she sat in a cell for a few hours afterward, John-Baptiste took her to his office in Subbase, next to Tropical Shipping, fondled her breasts and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. The two were allegedly interrupted by Brooks, who came in to say Calixte’s boyfriend was en route to pick her up, while Edwards, Calixte testified later, eventually came in and tried to dissuade her from suing John-Baptiste by saying that Calixte would "lose in court."
The story of Calixte’s assault at the dock was corroborated Wednesday by Marilisy Delacruz, an employee at Starfish Market on St. John who said she was returning to St. Thomas that day when she saw John-Baptiste approach the safari van, slap Calixte in the face and pull her out by the hair.
But when asked under cross-examination by John-Baptiste’s attorney Robert King Sr. what side of the face Calixte got hit on, Delacruz said, "I don’t know, I didn’t see her face." Delacruz said she didn’t report the incident to the police until April 2010.
Calixte, meanwhile, said she did not report the sexual assault until October 2010, but had, in at least four other reports filed with the local Attorney General’s Office, Port Authority internal affairs and the V.I. Police Department, mentioned that John-Baptiste had physically assaulted her – or roughed her up – at the dock.
The sexual assault also was not mentioned in a complaint Calixte filed in District Court in May 2009, King noted, adding that the sexual assault was only mentioned in a new FBI report filed a few months ago.
"I couldn’t take it anymore – I couldn’t sleep," Calixte said through her interpreter, when asked by King why she only recently chose to speak up.
Calixte refuted King’s assertions that John-Baptiste had repeatedly asked her not to solicit fares on Port Authority property, or that she had hit him in the head with a bottle before he arrested her, but added that she was afraid to report the sexual assault because John-Baptiste had told her he would shoot her if she told anyone about it.
Calixte’s credibility was tested after it came to light that she could speak English, and admitted to having full conversations with doctors, lawyers and even John-Baptiste and Edwards on the day in question. She also answered a few of King’s questions in English Wednesday before her interpreter could translate, but said later that was able to understand English, but could not, at most times, fully articulate what she wanted to say.
Pictures of Calixte’s injuries were shown in court Wednesday, and she broke down again on the stand while she talked about them and identified John-Baptiste as the one who gave them to her.
King is expected to wrap up his cross-examination when the trial resumes Thursday at 9 a.m.
