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43 year old Dion Zabaneh and his 76 year old mother Primrose Gabourel were hauled back before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford for the third time today.  

The Department of the Environment brought another raft of charges against them after being forced to withdraw the first set of charges which had multiple defects.  This time there was a wrinkle, there was a new charge for failure to obey an oral request - prior it was failure to obey a written enforcement notice.  

All his is in relation to parcel 4670 in Buttonwwood Bay,  over an acre of land which happens to be in the sea.  Zabaneh almost completely filled it up, continuing after the DEO served him with a stop order.  

Today, though, before the new charges could proceed, the Department faced a preliminary objection from Zabaneh and Gabourel’s Attorney Emil Arguelles.  He claimed that it was an abuse of process, that his clients were being brought back for charges that had already been withdrawn without explanation.  Here are two sides of he dispute:..

Emil Arguelles - Attorney for P. Gabourel, D. Zabaneh
"The prosecutor’s argument in court was that he screwed up so much and so badly that this, that it was as if nothing occurred the first few times!  And therefore he should be given another bite at prosecution now.  We argued that the prosecution ought to know what it’s to do."

"Our argument was that commencement of a proceeding starts when a person pleads guilty or not guilty which my clients clearly did, and that the withdrawal of the matter ended those proceedings at that point. To bring it again is abusive. This is like the thirtieth charge against these two. The worst part is, as i have pointed out was that this is a joke, where you have the government saying that they have acquired this property, they own it, yet you have here the prosecution representing the government saying that the government does not own the land Ms Primrose owns the land, hence she’s brought to court today for entirely new charges as an owner of the land. I have simply told the court that the prosecution, government’s left hand should huddle with government’s right and figure out what front and what argument they intend to take in this matter."

Jeavon Hulse - Legal Counsel, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment, Sustainable Development
"You commenced an activity without environmental clearance, and there’s no, it’s and’s or but’s about that, you started something without getting the requisite permits."

Jules Vasquez
"The defence attorney for the accused persons is saying that this is an abuse, you’re trying to take a third bit at the cherry."

Jeavon Hulse
"Ok, from what has happened, the first time we appeared before court, this is one of those situations where we always hear people go to court and things get struck out on technicalities. This is what they are trying to because clear as day the offenses were committed everybody see it. So now what we are arguing and what had happened previously was that on the first occasion when we were before the court, there were issues insofar as the documents that were tendered, submitted. Now, the department withdrew that. That was understood. We came back again, we had summonsed them but nothing happened on that occasion and now, really and truly this, today da di second time, really, they have been brought before the court, and so today now, they raised this argument insofar as double jeopardy that they were previously brought a plea was taken and that now we cannot bring the same charges again. And, so, today was really about hearing arguments on both sides as to whether they are right that the charges should not be brought again, or that the charges can be brought again."

Jules Vasquez
"Ok, but, clearly, I have to say, the ineptitude of the department in bringing charges. Sir if it was a poor man or poor woman stole a happy cow from Brodies they would have already been fined a thousand dollars. The alleged offenses were caught on camera were captured over time. And you mean the DOE can’t simply just bring a charge, you all didn’t even have the correct parcel number, Jeavon!"

Jeavon Hulse
"There were typos. Really and truly, they were typos insofar as the parcel number 4670. But, again, the thing is nobody noh perfect. And everybody know this. Da wah learning curve. And these are some for the first cases where you really see the DOE taking the helm now and stating to prosecute environmental offences."

"That is the fundamental, the core concept of what we are embodying, that we will prosecute to the fullest ability, and we, as much as possible, won’t let anyone get off on a technicality. You all are accusing Mrs Primrose Gabourel of violating the law on a parcel, which is not her land. You all, the government, as you just underscored in court acquired it in a gazette notice of November of 2006."

"All of these things only came to light recently. Really and truly it’s only a three to four weeks ago at best that these things arose insofar as the acquisition. Some of the charges were there from January."

Magistrate Ford will give a decision on the Preliminary Objection on April second.