A defendant yesterday attempted to cast doubt over the integrity of a sitting member of the judiciary while testifying in the case involving former judge Ray Pace, who has been charged with accepting a bribe to influence a drug trafficker’s sentence.
God forbid there was any doubt over Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano’s integrity
Giannella de Marco, Joe Giglio and Steve Tonna Lowell contended that their client, Darren Desira, a drug dealer jailed for 18 years by Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, was the victim of an improperly devised prison term.
It is alleged that Dr Pace took a bribe with the intention of influencing Mr Justice Quintano to hand a lengthy prison term to Mr Desira.
Dr Pace was allegedly bribed by Raymond Caruana, a 51-year-old truck driver from Żebbuġ, and 40-year-old Mr Psaila, a restaurateur from Valletta, who have been charged in separate proceedings.
Dr de Marco, Dr Giglio and Dr Tonna Lowell crossed swords with lawyer Joe Mifsud, who is appearing for Dr Pace, over whether they could be considered as representing Mr Desira as a victim.
Dr Mifsud said Mr Justice Quintano was still a serving member of the Bench, and was not accused. “God forbid”, he said, there was any doubt over his integrity.
Dr de Marco retorted: “Who is saying there are no doubts?”
To substantiate her argument, she said there were recorded phone calls to show that Dr Pace, when still a judge, had asked Mr Psaila if the 18-year jail term was satisfactory following sentencing.
The point at issue, she argued, was that Dr Pace had tried to influence the sentence.
Magistrate Neville Camilleri acceded to the request for Mr Desira’s lawyers to form part of the case. Taking the witness stand, Mr Desira said that last August he had found out his jury trial was scheduled for November 27 and he instructed his lawyers to start plea bargaining with the Attorney General.
In the negotiations, Aaron Bugeja, from the Attorney General’s office, said he was prepared to accept a 15-year jail term but his lawyers refused because his co-accused had been jailed for a shorter period even though they had faced more serious charges.
In 2005, John Sultana was jailed for 14 years and fined €51,246 and Joseph Borg for 13 years with a fine of €46,587.
Mr Desira said that before sentencing, Mr Psaila had approached him and told him to meet Dr Pace at Mr Psaila’s restaurant in an attempt to come to an arrangement over sentencing.
He received several similar phone calls from Mr Psaila, to the point that it began to bother him. In fact he felt compelled to make excuses not to meet the former judge because he did not want to create more problems for himself.
“I felt out of place,” he said before adding that he had full faith in his lawyers.
Mr Desira said Mr Psaila had informed him of the date set for sentencing. He said he had also heard through other people that Mr Caruana was saying he would be jailed for 18 years.
It was only when he arrived on the day for sentencing that he remembered what he had heard, because Mr Justice Quintano was acting strangely and hurriedly.
Although his defence team intended to present witnesses, the judge did not seem very interested.
“It was clear something was not right,” Mr Desira said.
He remarked to one of the escorting officers that he was going to be jailed for 18 years and so it was, Mr Desira added.
Another thing he found strange was that the judge had arrived 45 minutes late for the sitting.
Mr Desira said he was now afraid of going to court.
The case continues.