Bermuda: Ex-premier asks Governor and DPP to investigate police - St. Lucia News Online

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Dr. Ewart Brown

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Jan 31, CMC — Lawyers for former Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, have called on the Governor and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to launch an investigation in the wake of police raids.

They alleged police used sensitive patient information to pressure a potential witness as part of an inquiry into his medical practices.

On Thursday, the Royal Gazette newspaper said the lawyers wrote to Governor John Rankin and DPP Larry Mussenden to ask each to instruct an inquiry by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).

Brown’s legal team also sought an overall review of the police investigation.

The Bermuda Police Service (BPS) said it “strongly disagreed” with the claims.

Brown’s medical businesses, Bermuda Healthcare Services and the Brown-Darrell Clinic are under investigation over allegations they ordered unnecessary tests for patients to boost profits.

Brown, 72, who was premier between 2006 and 2010 during the first Progressive Labour Party administration, has denied the allegations and he has not been charged with any offence.

Letters sent to Rankin and Mussenden, dated January 21, were given to the Gazette on Tuesday and came nearly two years after police raided the clinics and seized medical records.

The letter to the Governor was signed by Jerome Lynch QC, of Trott and Duncan, and New York law firm Debevoise and Plimpton.

The lawyers expressed “grave concern at the use of sensitive patient information” by the BPS “in order to put pressure on a potential witness”.

They claimed to have “direct evidence” that a patient was approached without notice at their workplace by the BPS, who it was alleged “used references to the patient’s seized medical file in order to elicit information”.

The lawyers said a judicial review was pending into the lawfulness of the raids in February 2017.

Police launched investigations in 2011 after allegations of corruption against Brown were made under oath in the Supreme Court by financier David Bolden.

An inquiry team was set up after the scope of the work was established and started operations in February 2013.

Mahesh Reddy, the medical director of Bermuda Healthcare Services, was arrested in May 2016, but was never charged with any offence.

A Supreme Court judge later ruled the arrest and a search of Reddy’s home were unlawful. The police investigation had cost more than US$2.2 million by July 2016.

A Government House spokeswoman confirmed a letter was received from Trott and Duncan, and that the Governor would reply.