—Says decision above security officers

IPNEWS:  While being taken back to the Monrovia Central Prison following proceedings at the Criminal Court ‘A’ on Friday, September 15, 2923, former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott, caused a brief scene under the canopy of the Temple of Justice when she refused to allow Correctional officers remove her handcuffs before embarking a vehicle to the central prison.

It all started when Justice Scott and the other three suspects, under heavy security guide, emerged from the quarter of Criminal Court ‘A’ to be taken back to their cells at the central prison (South Beach).

While being guided by the correctional officers to get on board a white double carbine security pick-up, Justice Scott found it difficult to enter the vehicle as the two arms were handcuffed in front of her, thus making it difficult or impossible for her get on board the waiting vehicle.

The correctional officers attempted to remove the handcuffs to make it easy for the former Chief Justice to climb and sit in the vehicle but she refused and insisted that the handcuffs remain on her hand anyhow because the decision to handcuff her and the other defendants including her more than 80 year old aunty, Rebecca Wisner, did not come from the security officers, and therefore she would not allow them to change such a critical decision on their own.

(No, you can’t remove them. We can find another means. Maybe you can get a bench or a small table that I can step on to climb. Don’t remove the handcuffs. It’s not your decision. I don’t want to get you in trouble, please.”

The officers, many of whom were females, then suggested to bodily lift her into the pick-up but she also refused, but requested that they find a bench, table or chair so she could step on it and get on board the vehicle.

With court attendees, lawyers and other passersby watching, the officers then brought a chair on which the former Chief Justice stepped and with little help from the female officers, managed to take her seat on the vehicle and driven to the prison along with the other three suspects.

In related development, Supreme Court Justice In Chamber, Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie, has cited Criminal Court ‘A’Judge, Roosevelt Z. Willie and the defense party to a conference on Monday, September 25, 2023, to hear a petition for Writ of Certiorari filed by defense lawyers against the recent handling and decision of Judge Willie on the attempted jury tampering allegations against Solicitor General, Nyanti Tuan.

Judge Roosevelt Willie, on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, announced the suspension Cllr. Nyanti Tuan and fined him Tuan US$250 (Two Hundred Fifty United States Dollars) for attempting to tamper with the trial jurors who are sequestered at the Temple of Justice.

The court issued the punishment on the government’s chief prosecutor on Monday, September 18, 2023, after an investigation conducted on claims that he (SG Tuan) visited the quarter of the Sequestered Trial Jurors during odd hours on September 13, 2023.

The court said the Security of the Judiciary reported on September 15, 2023, that Solicitor General, Nyanti Tuan entered the premises of the Temple of Justice at 8:00PM on September 13, 2023, and interacted with the police officers assigned at the Jury Quarter.

Following the reading of the investigation report by the Jury Management and Judiciary Security in the Chamber of Criminal Court ‘A’ Judge, Roosevelt Z. Willie on Monday, September 18, 2023, Cllr. Tuan has been suspended from the murder trial and fined US$250.00 to be paid in three days.

SG Tuan, in the presence of both prosecution and defense lawyers, admitted visiting the Temple of Justice along with some officers of the Liberia National Police on the day and date mentioned in the report, but argued that it was 5:00PM and not 8:00PM as mentioned in the report.

The defense team filed the petition for the Writ Certiorari on grounds that, among other things, the matter was not properly investigated and that the decision and punishment imposed do not appear to commensurate the act done and the offense committed by the Solicitor General.