Ms. Rodrigues, in the Mail article, claimed she had a 2 year affair with a prisoner, Curtis Warren, while she was employed at the prison.
Naturally if these claims are true then they raise some very serious questions as to how this affair, with a maximum security prisoner, was able to take place and to go on for so long?
The discredited, and disgraced,Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand, still hasn't grasped how a so-called "Democracy" is supposed to work and has reverted to his dictatorial and totalitarian ways and refuses to answer any questions surrounding these extremely serious allegations. In the absence of an independent mainstream media, it looks like he/his Department won't be held to account and any questions will remain unanswered.
But that is what Scrutiny (Parliamentary Select Committee) is there for right?
Constable Steve Pallet is the Chair Person of the Scrutiny Panel who are supposed to "Scrutinise" the disgraced Home Affairs Minister and his Department. The only other Member on his Panel is another Constable Michel Le Troquer who actually voted for Geoff Southern to be Chairman. But guess who voted for Steve Pallet (besides the rest of the establishment members)? None other than the disgraced Home Affairs Minister himself!
So it will come as no surprise to learn that although Panel Member Constable Le Troquer believes questions need to be asked/answered, Steve Pallet, the Chairman, does not. "Why not" you might ask?
I suggest it is because Constable Pallet doesn't know how Scrutiny is supposed to work. But just as alarmingly the Constable won't be Scrutinising the Minister (who voted for him) seemingly because The Mail has said some horrible things about a friend of his!
Below are extracts from an e-mail exchange between the Scrutiny Panel, and VFC, which demonstrate the mess this Island is in because of no checks and balances, an unwillingness/refusal of the "Scrutiny" Chairman to "Scrutinise" the guy who voted for him because a newspaper said some horrible things about his friend and why the Chairman should resign, with immediate effect and give the position, to a non-conflicted, and capable Member.
Constables.
I contact you in your capacity of Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Chairman/Member and bring to your attention an article in today's Mail Online http://www.dailymail.
Could I ask if either of you will be submitting an urgent question to the Home Affairs Minister this coming Tuesday, will you be asking him to make a statement and, as a Scrutiny Panel, will you be scrutinising the policy/procedures that allowed a maximum security prisoner to spend so much time alone with a (presumably vulnerable) female member of staff let alone allegedly be involved in an illicit sexual relationship with her for 2 years?
I await your reply/answers with anticipation.
Reply From Constable Michel Le Troquer 16th Feb 2014
Thanks for the information. I’ll be speaking with the Chairman Constable Steve Pallet and I’m sure this is the start of something that will go on for some time. If true then there are a lot of explanations to be made……..and I don’t know how anyone will be able explain away such allegations. We shall update you after we have discussed the matter. There are likely to be many other Members who too will be seeking an explanation. Thanks again for advising us.
Kind regards,
Reply from VFC 16th Feb 2014
Constable.
Thank you for your reply, if no answers to my questions, as yet.
You'll forgive me for not sharing your optimism in "there are likely to be many other Members who too will be seeking an explanation"
The Assembly (if you'll excuse my bluntness) is full of head nodding lobby-fodder who don't seem to have the ability to ask a question and I would be very surprised if anybody, other than Deputies Tadier, Higgins, and possibly Le Herissier, will ask anything.
Hopefully yourself, and Constable Pallet, will put pressure on the Home Affairs Minister to issue a Statement to the Assembly and possibly the Media concerning this grave matter?
I look forward to my questions being addressed (answered) in due course.
Reply from Scrutiny Panel Chairman and Constable Pallet. 17th Feb 2014
Further to your e-mail below,I will not be asking the Home Affairs Minister to make a statement or be submitting an urgent question to the Minister in regards to comments made in the Mail on Sunday yesterday either as a back bencher or as Chairman of the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel.
I for one have no faith in the journalistic credibility of this newspaper especially after the printing of a story very recently linking the local radio presenter Murray Norton to the death of charity organiser and blogger Simon Abbott.So called facts in the article were totally flawed and bear no resemblance to the truth.
In regards to these latest allegations,the Minister has stated publicly this morning that he considers them to have no basis and did not want to give any creedance to the article by commenting on it to any great degree.Undoubtedly the Minister will carry on an informal internal investigation but I am sure he believes that this so-called affair was ,more than likely,a figment of Miss Rodrigues imagination.
There will though be an opportunity to question the Home Affairs Minister at the next Quarterly Hearing if necessary to investigate the current procedures for professional visitors to inmates at HMP La Moye which I have little doubt is extremely stringent, as I have seen on visits I have made to the prison in the past.One of these visits was with the Scrutiny Panel in late 2012 whilst Curtis Warren was still held at La Moye.
At present there is nothing to suggest that this is anything other than a ‘sensationalised’ story from a national newspaper with little in the way of evidence to support the allegations.
At present I do not see a role for the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel in this matter.
I thankyou for your e-mail and for alerting the Panel of this story.
Reply from VFC 17th Feb 2014
Constable.
Thank you for your response and for demonstrating that you do not understand how the Scrutiny Process is supposed to work.
I have only 2 questions, before I consider a substantive reply to your e-mail.
1. Are you a friend of Murray Norton's?
2. On the strength of your e-mail will you be submitting your resignation from Scrutiny?
Please do as you see fit.I have no intention of entering into a dialogue with you over your interpretation of the Scrutiny process.
1.Yes I do consider myself a friend of Murray Norton’s and make no excuse for being so.Neither do I or have I hidden the fact.
2.No.
Kind Regards Steve
Ps Please do not waste either your or your own time on a substantive reply to past e-mails
Reply from VFC 17 Feb 2014.
I find your tone extremely dismissive and offensive and in contravention of States Members Code of Conduct, and on that basis I intend submitting a complaint to PPC citing our e-mail exchange as evidence.
I'll take your advice on not substantively responding to your previous e-mail but instead will publish our correspondence in a Blog Posting where I will be suggesting that you are willing to turn your back on the scrutiny Process because a newspaper has given negative press to a friend of yours. Furthermore that you believe if the Minister (who you are supposed to be "scrutinising") says he is not going to answer questions then that's good enough for you.
Being a responsible Blogger (Jersey's only independent media) I would like to offer you a video interview on this subject so you are given the opportunity to explain your actions on this matter?
I intend on publishing the Blog tomorrow, containing extracts from our correspondence, but am willing to postpone for 24 hours if you would like to defend your actions in a video interview.(END)
The (rude and offensive) Constable has not replied to the last e-mail so it looks like he has declined the offer of an interview.
It should also be mentioned that Teresa Rodrigues has a very colourful and worrying past, as a counsellor, which I'll not go into just now and questions need to be asked as to "why" she "left" the prison in 2011 and how the hell she got the job in the first place?
But as we know the "Scrutiny" Chairman isn't looking to "Scrutinise" any of it.
VFC acknowledges that Curtis Warren strenuously denies the claims made by Ms. Rodrigues.