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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesLanguage Barriers Snarl Testimony in Day 4 of Corruption Trial

Language Barriers Snarl Testimony in Day 4 of Corruption Trial

The prosecution pressed forward Thursday in its case against V.I. law enforcement officers Enid Edwards, Francis Brooks and Bill John-Baptiste, calling five new witnesses during a long day in District Court punctuated with language barriers and repeated sidebars relating to legal procedures.

VIPD officers Edwards and Brooks and Port Authority officer John-Baptiste are alleged to have committed crimes ranging from assault and battery to illegal narcotics distribution to drug trafficking, extortion and fraud. Between them they face an indictment that totals 54 counts.

Yvese Calixte, the local taxi driver who was called to the stand on Wednesday, resumed her testimony on Thursday. John-Baptiste is accused of hitting and sexually assaulting Calixte on April 2, 2008.

His attorney, Robert King Sr., attempted to discredit Calixte’s sexual assault claims by questioning both the timeline and the inconsistencies in her statements to different authorities.

Calixte testified that John-Baptiste sexually assaulted her even though she was alone with him in his Port Authority office for only a minute or so before Edwards, Brooks and Calixte’s boyfriend showed up.

King questioned how it would have been possible for John-Baptiste to have sexually assaulted her in such a short amount of time, but Calixte insisted that John-Baptiste fondled her breasts and exposed himself to her.

She also testified that she didn’t report the sexual assault in her initial statements to VIPD, her doctor and her attorney because John-Baptiste had threatened to shoot her if she did.

Calixte didn’t come forward with the sexual assault claims until she reported them to the FBI in October 2010.

Calixte’s claim that John-Baptiste physically assaulted her earlier the same evening at the Red Hook ferry terminal was bolstered by witness Rosemary Sainfort, a ticket-seller at the terminal, who said she saw the attack occur.

Sainfort, who speaks Haitian Creole, testified through an interpreter that she saw John-Baptiste hit Calixte on the head and drag her by the hair out of her vehicle, then pin her to the ground.

This testimony contradicted the official police report of the incident, in which John-Baptiste reported that Calixte assaulted him, not vice versa.

Calixte’s boyfriend, Jossenel Moreno, also appeared on the witness stand Thursday, where he was questioned by prosecutor Kim Lindquist about payments he made to Brooks in return for Calixte’s release.

Moreno said that when he learned that Calixte had been arrested by John-Baptiste for soliciting fares at the ferry terminal, he called officer Brooks to see if he could help. Moreno said he knew Brooks because he was a friend of Calixte’s daughter.

Brooks and Edwards then came to see Moreno, and Brooks told Moreno that if he gave him $1,000, Calixte would not go to jail. Moreno testified that he didn’t have $1,000, so Brooks told him to give him $500 that night, then another $500 the next day.

Moreno said that he agreed, and handed $500 to officer Edwards while the three of them were sitting in Brooks and Edwards’ police car.

However, Moreno’s testimony was not without difficulty. Upon cross-examination by King, he seemed to have trouble answering questions about his subsequent visit to John-Baptiste’s Port Authority police office with officers Edwards and Brooks.

King asked him several different times, through an interpreter speaking Haitian Creole, whether the door to the office appeared to be locked, and whether he could see through the office window from where he was sitting in the squad car.

Moreno seemed confused by King’s questions, and gave contradictory answers when King attempted to clarify by rephrasing the questions. Moreno’s inconclusive testimony stretched over more than two hours, through several sidebars between the judge and attorneys, and several admonitions to the translator. King ended in exasperation, uttering "I give up."

Thursday’s final witness was Edred Wilkes, chief of police for V.I. Port Authority. Wilkes was questioned by Lindquist about VIPA arrest procedures in an attempt to determine whether John-Baptiste’s actions toward Calixte were proper.

Wilkes testified that John-Baptiste was operating within guidelines when he opted to release Calixte to Moreno without charging her, though he conceded that VIPA has no formal written procedures. He said that officers have discretion to "cut people loose" if they see fit, without permission from superiors.

However, he said that John-Baptiste’s decision to let Calixte go made him "furious" and he wanted her to be rearrested.

Lindquist also asked Wilkes why John-Baptiste did not have Calixte sign a release of liability form, which is standard when releasing a suspect without charge. Wilkes said John-Baptiste told him he "couldn’t find one," though under further questioning Wilkes admitted that there is no template for the form. He said that officers normally create a form from scratch if and when they need one.

On redirect, Lindquist asked why John-Baptiste would claim that he "couldn’t find" the liability form if he could have just created one on a computer, or by hand. Wilkes countered that John-Baptiste didn’t have access to a computer at the time, and that a hand-written form would have been unacceptable.

The prosecution hopes to wrap up its case some time on Friday, when the trial resumes at 9 a.m.

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