sentencing

On Tuesday, inside a federal courtroom in Manhattan, Darrin Roker rose to his feet when the judge invited him to speak. He wore a tan, prison-issue uniform. Shackles circled his ankles, according to reporting by The Tribune.

Roker, a former chief petty officer in the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, told the court that his cancer had become a “monster.” Some days, he said, he sleeps for as long as twenty-three hours. Standing before the judge, he asked for “another chance,” to return home to his family.

“That’s all I can ask, and thank God,” Roker said. “I want a chance to go back home to my family. I have lost everything in the Bahamas–my job, my pension. I have nothing else but my family.”

Roker was sentenced to four years in a United States prison after admitting that he used his position of trust to assist drug traffickers linked to a conspiracy that moved more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine through the Bahamas and into the United States. Prosecutors said he provided sensitive law-enforcement information, including intelligence shared by the U.S. Coast Guard and OPBAT, in exchange for bribes.

The judge described the offences as extremely serious. Under federal guidelines, Roker had faced a significantly longer sentence. But the court also heard extensive medical evidence showing that his prostate cancer had returned aggressively and was now terminal. His PSA levels, filings said, had increased fourfold.

Roker is dying.

As the proceedings unfolded, Roker smiled briefly at his wife, seated in the gallery. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue throughout the hearing. Two other family members sat nearby.

In court, his attorney, Martin Roth, acknowledged his client’s guilt. “He was weak,” Roth said. “He wasn’t himself. In that moment of weakness, he joined the conspiracy and took the $20, 000,” according to The Tribune. Roth also pointed to Roker bending to pressures, operating in ‘a culture long affected by drug trafficking and corruption.’

Roker pleaded guilty in October, becoming the first of thirteen defendants to do so in a wide-ranging case that implicated senior law-enforcement officials of the Royal Bahamas Police Force—Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis and a sergeant. His cooperation and his medical condition weighed heavily in the court’s final decision.

*Courtroom details in this report are drawn from reporting by The Tribune.

The Free National Movement has clarified that comments made by its former chairman in the sentencing of notorious convicted felon and disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard do not reflect the views of their party.

Why it matters

The trial against Nygard, a permanent resident of the Bahamas, accused of 4 counts of sexual assault in a Canadian court, is wrapping up and the FNM’s former chairman Sidney Collie is one of twenty people who wrote character letters to the judge pleading for leniency.

Canadian prosecutors are seeking a 15-year sentence while Nygard’s defense attorneys are asking for two years and time served.

The big picture

Nygard, a Canadian citizen who once lived in the Bahamas and owned a multimillion-dollar clothing empire, had close ties to the Perry Christie Administration in 2012 and was a major donor to the Progressive Liberal Party.

Women in the Bahamas, Canada and the US, accused him of sexual assault. He was convicted of sexual assault against 4 women in Toronto who said he lured them to his headquarters and attacked them, dating from the 1980s until the mid-2000s. It involved three women who were in their 20s at the time and another who was 16 years old.

No charges have been filed in the Bahamas though allegations have been levied against him.

What the FNM said

Dr. Duane Sands, the National Chairman of the party emphasized the party’s dissociation from Nygard’s deeds, marking a firm stance against the actions of Nygard.

He emphasized that Collie acted in his capacity as a former attorney for Nygard, and Collie’s character reference was made in a professional context and should not be interpreted as reflecting the party’s stance.

State of Play

Nygard was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex trafficking and racketeering charges, and still faces sexual assault charges in Manitoba and Quebec, Canada.