( L - R ) Chin, Spencer

THE STRENGTH of the prosecution's case against Kern Spencer and Colleen Wright may hinge on the testimony of former co-accused, Rodney Chin, who is scheduled to take the stand today.

The Crown will also be hoping for Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey to admit certain documents from the Companies Office of Jamaica into evidence.

Yesterday, prosecutor Opal Smith fought to have certain company documents admitted into evidence. Smith, while fielding questions to Hazel Bennett, manager of customer services at the Companies Office of Jamaica, heard that company documents that do not have the signatures of gazetted officers are worthless.

It was an opening for the defence which charged that some of the company documents being used as evidence do not have the required signatures. Defence counsel Deborah Martin had asked the court not to admit into evidence some of the documents which were unsigned.

The resident magistrate agreed that unsigned documents were not to be admitted.

"Anybody in the office could put something on a certified paper but it is not a certified copy unless it is signed by a gazetted officer," Pusey said.

Fighting to keep documents

However, the prosecution will be fighting to ensure that more documents, which are bundled and unsigned, are kept on the evidence table.

Spencer, who is charged with corruption and money laundering arising out of his role in the implementation of the Cuban light-bulb project, is accused of setting up companies to benefit from the contracts.

Meanwhile, Phillip Paulwell, who had told the court on Monday that he only became aware of the existence Universal Management and Development Company (UMDC) and Caribbean Communication and Media Network (CCMN) after former Energy Minister Clive Mullings brought the matter to Parliament in September 2007, said he might have been mistaken.

K.D. Knight, who is representing Wright, suggested to Paulwell that representatives of UMDC and CCMN were at a press conference that Paulwell called on May 17, 2007 to announce that a larger number of Cubans were coming. Knight said the representatives of both companies made PowerPoint presentation at the press conference. Paulwell, who at one point told the court "my memory is bad", said he might have made a mistake when he said the names of the companies were new to him.

Meanwhile, Paulwell told the court that a personal assistant has nothing to do with the workings of a ministry and neither does such a person handle ministry documents. Wright was Spencer's personal assistant while he was a government minister.

Paulwell said he knew Chin prior to the light-bulb project. He told the court that he knew him as Andrew Chin from Chin's Construction.

In the meantime, the defence also moved to oust attorneys-at-law Richard Small and Herron Dale from the courtroom but were unsuccessful. Patrick Atkinson, who represents Spencer, told the court that the clerk had been asked to serve subpoenas on the men, who had represented Chin when he was an accused. Atkinson said he intends to call both lawyers as witnesses.

The trial continues today in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com