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Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno is today expected to disclose details of her alleged communication with the prosecution in the Dana Seetahal preliminary inquiry, which led to reputed gang leader Rajaee Ali and some of his co-accused calling on her to recuse herself.
Cedeno was expected to make the disclosure to the group’s lawyer Criston J Williams when the case came up for hearing at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday but adjourned it to today.
Yesterday’s brief hearing was the first time the case was heard at the Hall of Justice. The case has been moved from the Port-of-Spain Magistrate Court during the Supreme Court’s vacation to help alleviate traffic congestion caused by special security arrangements instituted for the hearings.
After Cedeno makes the disclosure she is expected to give defence attorneys and prosecutors directions on the filing of submissions on the recusal application. After today’s hearing, the case can only resume later this month, as Cedeno is expected to go on two weeks’ vacation next week.
In the event Cedeno agrees to recuse herself, it would mean the preliminary inquiry, already at an advanced stage, would have to be restarted before a new magistrate. This would further delay the case as prosecutors will have to re-tender the 50 witness statements already put into evidence. The ten witnesses who have already given evidence before Cedeno will also have to take the witness stand and be cross-examined by defence attorneys. There have been no evidentiary hearings since the issue was raised.
In the application, Williams explained that the improper communication was revealed to him and other defence attorneys during a chamber court hearing before Cedeno on June 1. Williams said at the meeting they were told there was communication between the prosecution and Cedeno in November last year and in May.
Williams alleged that the communication related to a series of violent threats made in series of Whatsapp messages. The messages, which do not directly refer to Cedeno or the case, were attached to the application. In the application, Williams suggested that the communication and the failure of Cedeno to disclose it within a reasonable time was improper. He also suggested that her conduct may make a fair-minded observer question whether she would be biased against the accused men.
Cedeno only took control of the case in 2016, after former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar recused herself from the case after it was revealed some police officers in her security detail assisted in investigating Seetahal’s murder.
Reputed gang leader Rajaee Ali and 13 alleged associates were charged with Seetahal’s May 4, 2014 murder. Seetahal was shot dead behind the wheel of her SUV while driving along Hamilton Holder Street in Woodbrook.