Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade confirmed yesterday that investigators met with Prime Minister Perry Christie as a part of the Royal Bahamas Police Force's (RBPF) probe into matters raised in purported recordings of billionaire fashion designer Peter Nygard that accompany court filings relating to an alleged murder plot targeting members of the Save the Bays environmental group.

According to Greenslade, investigators were expected to speak with Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis yesterday morning. The investigation, which was launched last Friday, will determine whether there is any criminal matter that police ought to pursue, Greenslade said.

He said the investigation could lead to people being arrested. "We are going to see and speak with anyone that we believe can provide us information to make sense of what we are pursuing, and if we find there is culpability... we will take action irrespective," said Greenslade during a press conference at police headquarters.

"The law is, watch me, blind. "She is blind. And no man is above the law."

Greenslade also said, "I hope today that persons [who] have spoken to you as members of the press will be forthcoming and will be willing to allow us to have an audience with them, so we might take their statements, so we may interview them, to determine if they are under any fear, under any threat, and if they feel anything is being said that may malign them or be libelous or cause them any particular grief.

"That is our duty." Nygard's wealthy neighbor, Louis Bacon; Freeport lawyer Fred Smith; environmentalists Joseph Darville and Romauld Ferreira; and Bain and Grants Town activist Rev. C.B. Moss have together filed a writ in the Supreme Court against Nygard and lawyer Keod Smith.

Assertions relating to the alleged murder plot against certain members of Save the Bays are contained in a detailed, 410-page affidavit from John Joseph DiPaolo, an investigator hired out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Greenslade said he suspects that police will have complaints on record that would allow them to move forward with their investigation.

When asked about specifics of DiPaolo's affidavit, Greenslade questioned how he (the investigator) could conduct an investigation in The Bahamas without the RBPF's knowledge. He said that matter will also be probed.

Greenslade did not provide a timeframe for police to complete their investigation. However, he said he hopes to advise the public on the matter soon.

Complaints

Though he admitted to not having read the Florida investigator's affidavit, Greenslade said he did not receive any reports or complaints of someone "doing a wrong deed, planning a wrong deed, attempting to hurt, maim or kill anyone".

He also said he had not received "a complaint or anyone saying, 'Commissioner, I have come into information that I believe, based upon what I have heard and what I perceive, you as a law enforcement agency should have in respect of this matter that we are discussing that's on the pages of this newspaper'".

DiPaolo's affidavit details several complaints Save the Bay members made to the commissioner of police on which no action was allegedly taken.

The affidavit says that hate rallies/protests were reported to the commissioner and a detailed complaint was lodged on February 27, 2015 with a dossier on the hate rallies and voluminous exhibits.

In a letter to the commissioner dated May 5, 2015, attorney Fred Smith claimed some of the victims of the hate rallies met with Acting Deputy Commissioner Stephen Seymour in March 2015 to provide him "an oral account of the hate rallies and fear and anxiety they now live with as result of the same".

Smith wrote that there had been no response to the previous complaints. When asked about the March meeting, Greenslade did not confirm or deny it took place.

"I can't even speak to it, because for me it is a non issue," he said. "The only thing I can speak to is the fact that based on what I saw in open source, not on affidavit, open source, and based upon what has been told to me, as I said before, and based upon the statement of murder for hire, I've asked detectives to pay attention to that, and we started in earnest on Friday."

In another letter addressed to the commissioner dated August 24, 2015, Smith detailed alleged "criminal threats, intimidation and harassment" endured by certain members of the Save the Bays group.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian