Derrick Holiday
pleads ‘not guilty’
~ Accuses Lt. Governor of perjury, forgery ~
PHILIPSBURG--Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday pleaded “not guilty” during his trial in the Court of First Instance on Wednesday.
Holiday (53) is charged with involvement in signing 43 forged Immigration documents between April and August 2004 and with forgery of documents between February 2004 and June 2007 to obtain a rent allowance from the Central Government to which he was not entitled.
The charge that he had also been involved in violating the Federal Ordinance on Admittance and Expulsion LTU between October and December 2006 was dropped by the Prosecutor during Wednesday’s hearing.
Holiday maintained he was innocent. “I have not committed any crimes,” he told Judge Rob Goossens before a capacity crowd in the courtroom. He said he regretted that his “good name and honour” had been tarnished.
Prosecutor Maarten Hemelaar considered the two charges proven, and requested that Judge Rob Goossens convict Holiday to a suspended prison sentence of one year, with two years’ probation. He further requested that Holiday be banned from working in the Police Force for five years.
According to the former head of the Windward Islands Police Force, he was the victim of a conspiracy. “I had to get out of the way,” Holiday said, and to make this possible his good name had to be damaged, he claimed. “Since 2006, the Minister (of Justice) has held talks with candidates, among them the current coach, to replace me as chief commissioner.”
Holiday stated that his opponents had gone to great lengths in attacking him, in his eyes because he had been vocal in opposing the arrival of Dutch Marechaussees on the island.
He stated that Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards had made false statements in his efforts to break him. These statements concerned the issue of Immigration re-entry forms and the alleged fraud involving the rent allowance.
His lawyer Joeri Essed said the Lt. Governor apparently had been the “big force” behind the persecution of his client.
Holiday was of the opinion that the Lt. Governor had given a false statement concerning the rent allowance by stating that he had heard from Holiday that he was the owner of the Oyster Pond house and that he was no longer renting it.
Holiday had been renting the house since 1994, receiving a rental allowance of NAf. 2,000 per month from the Central Government. He purchased the house in 2004, but still received the allowance despite the fact that he was no longer entitled to it.
According to Holiday, the Lt. Governor had committed perjury or forgery in giving this statement. Holiday said he would file an official complaint on this matter.
Holiday claimed he had not done anything wrong in signing the Immigration re-entry forms. He said that as Chief Commissioner he was entitled to admit persons to the island for humanitarian reasons.
Prosecutor Hemelaar said the re-entry forms were only to have been used during the so-called grace periods for illegal residents in St. Maarten between October 2001 and February 2002. However, Holiday allegedly still made use of these documents, drafted outside the registration system for foreigners NAVAS.
The re-entry permits were only supposed to be issued during the grace period to those undocumented residents who had to travel abroad to obtain documents necessary to legalise their status in St. Maarten.
Former Chief of Immigration Marcel Loor was convicted of similar charges by the Court in November 2007, but “Holiday is no Loor,” said Hemelaar, “He is no corrupt police officer.” The Prosecutor underlined that Holiday had not used the forged documents to enrich himself.
Like Loor, Holiday was also charged with fraud in the matter of rent allowances. However, Holiday maintained that he had acted according to the rules, adding that he had paid back an amount of NAf. 72,000 to the Federal Receiver, in return for which he claimed Justice Minister David Dick had promised him that he would not be prosecuted on this matter.
Attorney-at-law Joeri Essed based the defence of his client on two pillars. He stated that the prosecutor’s case against his client should be declared inadmissible because his client had been put under “illegitimate” and “very high psychological pressure” during his arrest and one-day detention at the Pointe Blanche prison, where he was also interrogated. In doing so, “the Prosecutor’s Office had deliberately put (Holiday) to the pillory,” Essed said.
Essed claimed that Holiday had just been doing his work and that he had done nothing illegal. He therefore pleaded for his client’s full acquittal on all charges.
The Court will be handing down its judgement on October 8.
