Dr Brown Responds To Lahey Case Dismissal
Dr Ewart Brown said he was pleased by the Lahey case being dismissed, but not at all surprised, with the former Premier adding that he “heard no remorse from the former AG or his party” after they “frittered away $4 million of the people’s money.”
Dr Brown said, “On Friday, March 9, the United States Federal District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, dismissed the civil suit that the former Attorney General, MP Trevor Moniz, filed against the Lahey Hospital Center.
“Although I was not a party to the action, I was a named co-conspirator. Numerous defamatory lies were told about me in the complaint, and in a gratuitous press statement that was issued by the former AG when the filing took place.
“Many have asked me for a reaction to the suit’s dismissal. I must say that I am very pleased, but not at all surprised.
“Through these times, my guiding mantra which I have shared with everyone is this: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” [Psalms 27:1-2].
Dr Brown said when he listened on Friday night as the former AG “intentionally provoked his own ejection from the House so he would not have to face the music” of his own making, there was a part of him that “gleeful,” however, most of him “was sad.”
“I was reminded of a small, petulant, spoiled brat of a man caught red-handed doing something wrong, looking up and saying ‘The dog did it,” he said.
“I heard no remorse from the former AG or his party — only bravado, obfuscation and lies. I could not believe the sheer pomposity of one who frittered away $4 million of the people’s money, while stating that ‘the case was dismissed on a technical ground.’
“I could not fathom how the former AG twisted the judge’s statement of intent to narrow her opinion and exclude criminal acts [because it was not a criminal case], by highlighting her statement as if she posited that criminal acts may have been committed. He knows better.
“Why was the public not told that no other country or authority — including the U.S. Justice Department — has shown any interest in this matter for good reason: There is no crime. Why, knowing that, did the former AG resort to this $4 million civil suit gamble where he has failed miserably?
“What kind of man — backed by an OBA government — gives no thought to the harm he causes Lahey, a medical institution that has saved countless Bermudian lives, or the patients of Bermuda’s own Bermuda HealthCare Services and Brown-Darrell Clinic, because he is hell-bent on destroying a political foe?
“What kind of OBA government has its former AG stand up in Parliament a year ago and say that this $4 million expenditure was approved by Cabinet, only to have us now hear a former Cabinet member say that the matter did not go before Cabinet and, thus was not approved by Cabinet?
“So, $4 million was spent without Cabinet approval? What about Financial Instructions – were they followed? Do Financial Instructions only apply when PLP governments are in power?
“My reaction to the suit’s dismissal? There was a victory in the US courts, because justice prevailed. But, where is the justice in my country? Where is the justice in Bermuda?
“I listened Friday night as it was stated yet again in that lofty place called Parliament — the seat of Bermuda’s government — that our MLAT Treaty with the United States was violated, that government files were shredded.
“We should all be reminded that our Bermuda Constitution requires that when the Attorney General’s office is held by any member of either House, all criminal matters shall exclusively fall under the control of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“No information – like my personal emails and bank balances that can only be derived from a criminal investigation– should have ended up being included in a civil complaint.
“Where is the justice in my country, Governor? Is there no call for an investigation of the former AG’s actions?
Dr Brown asked if the former AG’s alleged “contra-constitutional, document-shredding and treaty-violative actions sanctioned by you — by the FCO?”
Dr Brown asked “is there no call for an investigation” into how an attorney in the former AG’s office “who reported only to the former AG and worked on the Lahey files, was appointed to the Bermuda Health Council Board where my clinics’ fees were so severely cut that one of them is now partially closed?”
He asked “are there no questions” about the actions of the former AG, “his representative on the Council, its two OBA candidates and others.”
“Where is the justice in my country, Commissioner? When a convicted perjurer made lying utterances about me before being sentenced, you announced: ‘The Bermuda Police Service is aware of the allegations and, accordingly, we have commenced inquiries to determine whether any criminal offences have been committed.’
“Will there be any statement announcing an investigation into the widely believed allegations that government records were unlawfully destroyed?
Dr Brown also asked if “there be any statement announcing an investigation into the breaches” that may have allegedly occurred if the former AG were to have “colluded with members of the Bermuda Police Service.”
“Or, are we to believe, Commissioner, that the BPS raid on my clinics on February 12 and 13, 2017 and the filing of the Lahey suit on February 14, 2017 were mere coincidence?
“Only last week did I hear that, recently – over 7 years after I left office – two Bermuda police officers traveled to Washington, D.C. still in pursuit of a criminal prosecution of me.
“Do we really live in a country where a convicted perjurer’s utterances can launch a 7-year $10 million investigation [$4 million Lahey suit plus $6 million criminal inquiry] and attempted prosecution of a former Premier, while the impassioned words of a currently sitting Premier and verification by the Speaker of the House precipitate no action?
“No investigation? No words from neither the Commissioner of Police nor the Governor?
“Where is the justice in my country? Where are the strict constitutionalists? Where are the lawyers? What about word from the Bar Council — any enlightenment or rule of conduct on how attorneys are to secure and maintain documents under their control?
“Where is the selective morality of the OBA? No comment about the willful transgression of the Bermuda Constitution or abuse of process? No call for an investigation? No demand for a resignation? No call for a Commission of Inquiry? Are there any more ‘Concerned Bermudians’ around?
“My reaction? This suit certainly involved me and an unrelenting vendetta made by powerful forces in Bermuda to annihilate me. However, the issue inherently involved is way bigger than me.
“This is about approximately $10 million — and still counting — of the people’s money that could have been spent on our seniors, our children, our schools, our roads, our buses, and our ferries.
“This is about the equal protection and application of Bermuda’s laws. This is about race and racism in Bermuda,” Dr Brown said.
The former Premier called it “unbelievable arrogance and temerity” to stand up and “say to a country that he left no notes, no memos, no government files in his office whatsoever, about a matter on which he spent approximately $4 million of the people’s money! What in the world would make any rational person think he could get away with that?
Saying that only arrogance of supremacy “would allow something so utterly ridiculous to be stated with impunity, with no thought or concern that there would be consequences.”
“Why do I say that? I say that because there have been no consequences.”
“It cannot be right that we live in a country where only Black and PLP members and sympathizers are pursued, investigated and criminally prosecuted — where only Black and PLP politicians, members and sympathizers live under the prospect of unequal protection and application of the laws.
“My hope is that one day I will be proven wrong about race and racism in Bermuda – that, one day, Bermudians will stand together irrespective of race and political persuasion and side with what is right — not with me, but with what is right.
“My prayer is that one day there will be justice in my country for everyone ‘which will flow like a river, and that righteousness will accompany it like a mighty, never-ending stream.’
