Dear Editor,
This week, Saint Martin News Network carried a story on their website about a prison official and gym trainer arrested following allegations of misconduct with a minor, attached to the article was the full name and picture of the suspect. After that the official statement from the public prosecutor was posted, with the initials but no picture provided, this public notification was in line with what we have come to routinely expect from the authorities,
This is what the public knows, but what they don’t know is that the arrest was conducted quite discreetly, no wailing of sirens or commotion. Further to this, the family was kept entirely in the dark throughout most of the day despite their request for information. In fact, they only learned the reason for the arrest once it was published on SXM news network website. The reason that I mention this is that the secrecy with which the investigation was conducted, makes clear that the only way the press could have known anything was from hidden official sources.
It is incredibly farcical that the Public Prosecutor’s office should put out an official notification in the aftermath, adhering to conventional codes of decency while at the same time leaking the information to a press who they must have known would shatter any ethical code they would later try to preserve in their own official notification. I am not saying that the leak was from official sources, it may just have been someone in the organization acting on their own, or perhaps taking a bribe. In any case the damage has been done. Irreparable harm has been done to the reputation of an individual who has yet to be brought before the court.
Not only did the news network leave no question to his identity but they slanted the story to infer guilt. In their words, “He should have acted as a trusted adult”. How do they know he didn’t? On what basis are they making that statement? This is precisely why those confidentiality rules exist. And is the reason why the prosecutor's office should make every effort to identify the source of the leak and plug it, so that cases are not judged in the press before they are brought before a magistrate.
Another question I have is why is this form of injustice meted out to prominent members of our community when the rights of violent criminals are painstakingly respected. How many times do you read a story in the newspaper and are left to wonder who the hooligans are, all we get are the initials, it would be nice at least to know whether they are from the island or from abroad, and if from abroad, exactly where they are from.
It seems that the scathing retribution is reserved for prominent locals who have in the past given freely to the community of their time and expertise. This is no way excuses or pardons wrongdoing, but is it too much to expect that they be extended the same courtesy as the violent bandits that plague our community. I do have a message to the powers that be, it is from the family. They would like their Dad back!
Michael Vieira
