The Financial Intelligence Unit was ready for trial on Monday September 28, but there was a delay to the start of the preliminary inquiry into the money laundering case against Melonie Coye and her family. The delay was because of a request on Thursday September 17 by the Coye family’s attorneys for presiding Magistrate Dorothy Flowers to remove herself from the case in the interest of justice. No reason was given for the request but after thinking it over the weekend, on Monday morning Senior Magistrate Flowers agreed to step down and instead assigned the case to Magistrate Kathleen Lewis who presides in courtroom number three.
Attorneys for both the FIU and the defence have declined to comment on why Senior Magistrate Flowers was asked to
remove herself from the case. Some observers have speculated that it is nothing more than a delaying tactic since the PI was scheduled to start on September 24.
Melonie Coye along with her father and mother are facing charges of money laundering following a raid at their home on Johnson Street and the registered office for Money Transfer International on Central American Boulevard on January 1. The search led to 1.5 million dollars which was stashed in briefcases and valises. Melanie Coye along with her father Michael Coye, 62, and mother Marlene Coye, 55, were all arrested and charged for money laundering and their Money Gram agency was shut down. Melonie Coye’s husband, James Gerou, and brother, Jude Coye, were similarly charged and are being represented by attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley.
The Financial Intelligence Unit has hired attorney Antonette Moore to prosecute the case. Moore says she is ready for the Preliminary Inquiry and has statements from 62 witnesses. But stopping just short of thumping his chest, Defense Attorney Arthur Saldivar says that based on the disclosure, the evidence against his clients is, “not much”. The preliminary inquiry begins on October 9. But Magistrate Kathleen Lewis will now decide, and if she deems there is sufficient evidence against the Coyes, they will be ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
Simultaneously to the prosecution of the Coye family, the FIU is pursuing money laundering charges against Omni Network and its principal Dean Fuller as well as Ernest Raymond Jr. and former Money Gram messenger Athlee Matute. The case against Fuller and his Omni-Networks has been adjourned to November 4.
