DRUGS CASE DISMISSAL PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON LACK OF STAFFING

The Acting Director of Public Prosecutions believes more staff would
help avoid a repeat of problems such as Tuesday's dismissal of a
multi-million dollar drugs case.

Six men had been accused of conspiring to smuggle $11 million of
cannabis and $600,000 of heroin in July last year.

But Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves dismissed the case after
prosecutors failed to show.

Acting DPP Kulandra Ratneser said this was because senior crown
counsel Lloyd Rayney and crown counsel Graveney Bannister had been
tied up in the Justis Smith stabbing trial.

But Mr. Ratneser promised the drugs case would be brought back to
court.

He said he had not been prepared to send junior staff to such an
important case while numbers had also been depleted due to holidays.

Mr. Ratneser, who was appointed in March, said he was happy with the
performance of his staff but said there were too few to properly
handle all the cases.

He said: "We service five courts and on average there are 144 cases a
week. There are trials, appeals, preliminary hearings.

"We are short-staffed. We need a little bit of co-operation from other
arms of the criminal justice system. What happened on Monday was
extremely unfortunate.

"At the moment staff are overworked so the quality drops. If time is
short you don't get enough time to prepare."

Although he nominally has a full quota of staff he plans to appeal for
more money in next year's budget to boost numbers.

He said he was committed to the employment and promotion of Bermudians
and the policy was working as several staff had moved up the career
ladder during his brief spell.

The Crown had won the two high profile cases in his time, said Mr.
Ratneser with the conviction of Stanford Archibald for the murder of
Aaron Easton in 1985 and the conviction of Justis Smith for the
stabbing of Shanae Outerbridge in Dockyard last February.

Government hopes to appoint a new Director of Public Prosecutions
(DPP) next month, said Deputy Governor Nick Carter yesterday.

Mr. Ratneser is enjoying the job but cannot be given the post
permanently as he is over the age limit of 70 imposed by the
constitution.

However, he said he would be willing to stay on and help out the new
DPP.

Mr. Carter said a short list would soon be drawn up with the middle of
September being the target date for making a recommendation to
Governor Sir John Vereker.

The $127,000-post has attracted a large number of applicants and the
shortlist will include locals and expatriates said Mr. Carter.

Candidates will then be interviewed by a panel consisting of the
Police Commissioner, Government's Director of Human Resources, the
Deputy Governor, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions and Puisne
Judge Norma Wade Miller.

Sri Lankan lawyer Kulandra Ratneser was appointed acting DPP in March
after Khamisi Tokunbo's contract was not renewed.

One Police source told The Royal Gazette that under Mr. Ratneser
advice and approval of charges from the department of public
prosecutions were a lot swifter.

He said: "He's a lot better to work with."

Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said Mr. Ratneser was a very capable
and experienced man but he said he had no worries about the previous
director or the way the department was run then.