(Jamaica Observer) A trial involving some of Jamaica’s most prominent politicians and businessmen shaping up in a Florida court is likely to be sensational and could impact the way people use e-mails.
Professor David Rowe, a Jamaica-born Florida attorney, will face Daryl Vaz, the former information and telecommunications minister, in a Broward court in a lawsuit stemming from what is now being called a “hate-mail” that Vaz said libelled him and others.
But Rowe could also potentially face a slew of lawsuits from P J Patterson, Audley Shaw, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, Bruce Golding, Dr Christopher Tufton, Brian Jardim and others who were alleged to have been libelled in the e-mail that was widely circulated across the globe, Vaz said.
In court documents filed April 13, 2012 in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in and for Broward Country, Vaz alleged: “The defamation occurred through March 13, 2012 e-mail transmissions sent by defendant Rowe… who practices in the State of Florida, fabricated and published a document which purported to be an official ‘US Law Enforcement Memo to Turks and Caicos Special Investigation and Prosecutions Team’.
He alleged the document made “direct accusations of bribery, money laundering, corruption and close affiliations with a notorious convicted drug lord”.
Rowe, the son of the late Jamaican judge Ira Rowe, denied he was the author of the offensive e-mail and suggested the document in question originated from the United States Homeland Security. But in pressing his defence he was forced to admit that he had assisted one of its special agents, by the name of Brian McCormack, a fact most collaborators with US security agencies usually opt to keep a secret.
Writing to Vaz’s lawyers, Rowe revealed: “In my capacity as a Florida lawyer, I am professionally assisting a Justice Department US attorney and Homeland Security special agents in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Grand Jury investigation of Jamaican targets. This is why I forwarded the relevant memorandum to Homeland Security.”
