One defendant cleared over Bermuda 'charity' dinner - caribbeannationalweekly.com

In Bermuda, one of three defendants in the high-profile ‘Charity Dinner’ court case has been acquitted of giving false information to a public officer during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but former Tourism Minister Zane DeSilva remains on trial.

Justice Shade Subair Williams ordered a Supreme Court jury to find restaurant worker, Angela Caldwell, 45, not guilty of a charge stemming from a dinner held at a restaurant in July 2020.

The judge said the decision came as a result of “matters of the law which are in the sole provision of the court”.

The trial of the remaining two defendants — DeSilva, 63, and his daughter, Zarah Harper, 38 — is scheduled to resume on Monday.

They are both accused of providing information to an official at the Ministry of National Security that they did not believe to be true.

The charge, which they deny, adds that there was an intention to cause the public officer to do something they would not otherwise do, “namely that they provided a letter stating that an event would be a charity fundraising dinner in order to be granted an exemption to hold a large group gathering under the Public Health (COVID-19 Emergency Powers) Regulations 2020”.

The charges are related to an event held on July 3, 2020 at the Blu Bar and Grill, supposedly a one-off fundraising charitable dinner for 130 guests to benefit Meals on Wheels.

Earlier in the trial, Peter Smith, a former president, and chairman of Meals on Wheels, testified that he knew nothing of the event until he read about it in the Royal Gazette newspaper.

Prosecutors have argued that the event — approved by then National Security Minister Wayne Caines — was never intended to be a legitimate charitable fundraiser and the organizers had intentionally misled government staff to secure permission to have a party.

Caines and DeSilva left the cabinet after they accepted an “invitation to resign” from Premier David Burt just days after the dinner.

CMC

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