Holiday’s lawyer confident
~ Plans to request postponement ~
PHILIPSBURG--Former Windward Islands police chief commissioner Derrick Holiday’s lawyer is confident about the opening hearing for his client’s fraud trial and plans to request a postponement on the trial date, Wednesday, April 16, to hear more witnesses.
Attorney-at-law Joeri Essed said Monday that both he and his client would like to have the testimony of more witnesses heard before decisions were made about Holiday’s suspected involvement in signing forged Immigration documents. “The objective is to find all the aspects of the truth,” Essed told The Daily Herald.
Essed said they were confident the case would work well for them, noting that the perfect outcome for them would be “having all the charges against my client dismissed.” “We feel pretty confident, Mr. Holiday and myself,” Essed said.
This is Holiday’s first hearing since his February 5 arrest by federal detectives shocked the island. While refusing to divulge details of his planned defence once the hearing is in progress, Essed noted that they would be working along the lines of Holiday’s original assertions that he never knowingly signed fraudulent papers.
Holiday was the second top-ranking police officer arrested on suspicion of Immigration fraud. Former police commissioner and head of Immigration Marcel Loor was arrested last June and convicted in November 2007. His recent appeal hearing ended with his jail time being slashed in half and the possibility of his release in two months.
