What’s More Disgraceful? The Charges Or The Media Coverage?

Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Croix Office

We don’t know whose behavior is more disgraceful – those in the system who executed this debacle against Sen. Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg or the way The Virgin Islands Daily News and The Source (STT and STX) have reported it.

As events have unfolded since Donastorg turned himself in to police last Thursday on domestic violence charges, we have watched in disgust as mounting evidence has thrown the light of suspicion on those who pushed this into the courts, and have shaken our heads at the astoundingly biased (even for them) way the two major “mainstream” print media outlets have handled the information.

The charges stemmed from a police report filed by a 19-year-old St. Thomas woman recounting an incident that allegedly occurred between her and the Senator in January. In that initial report, she reportedly said that Donastorg had threatened her with a gun when she went to his home and that he assaulted her while trying to get her out of his car when he gave her a ride back to her mother’s home that same evening. Donastorg is scheduled to be formally charged and enter a plea on March 11.

Significant portions of her story have changed. But the reporting style of our  “mainstreamers” has not.

Even today, when a statement issued by the accuser through her attorney clearly shows that most if not all of the information distributed by the “prosecution” was at best altered and at worst, intentionally misrepresented, there was still little balance in the way the situation was reported.

The most recent Daily News story identified the accusers’ attorney, Judith Bourne, by pointing out “she was a Donastorg supporter during the last election cycle, as evidenced by the bumper sticker on her vehicle.” Can anyone tell us why this is relevant?

And from the very beginning of this saga, including the story they ran on Tuesday, The Source has felt the need to identify the Senator as “a married father of six.” Really? Any competent journalist will tell you the required information is who, what, where, when and why – marital status is not on the list.

From the start, there were serious doubts as to the validity of these charges. Comments from the attorney who accompanied him to the police station last week told us that the accuser had already recanted and that she had revealed that she’d been offered money to falsely accuse the senator.

Every day since this story broke, more and more information has come to light that would lead any rational person to believe that Administration operatives, the Virgin Islands Police Department and Department of Justice have all been complicit in an episode that has resulted in felony charges being leveled against Donastorg -  charges that carry a minimum sentence of eight years of incarceration were they found to be true.

In the statement issued through Bourne, the accuser, a 19-year-old woman identified only as Ms. K.E., told a story that is light years away from the sordid tale told by police officials last Friday in Donastorg’s probable cause hearing.

Since you’ve all heard the story, we’ll just summarize here. She said she was offered a $150,000 reward by Lavelle Campbell and Leslie Comissiong, both of St. Thomas, if she would file a report accusing Donastorg of assaulting her. Comissiong has reportedly denied these allegations. She went on to say that on the night in question, she had gone unannounced and uninvited the Senator’s home; that he went in to retrieve his firearm but when he realized who it was he put it at his waist and never threatened her with it; and that he did not assault her when he took her home to her mother’s house later that evening.

She stated, and police corroborated this information in the hearing last Friday, that she took issue with the information in the police report after she reviewed it, had recanted her allegations,  and had been assured that the information she challenged would be changed – but it never was – and that she got an attorney after learning of Donastorg’s arrest.

She says she was “encouraged” by Comissiong to cooperate with police and to meet with Police Commissioner Novelle Francis Jr., a meeting she said Comissiong arranged. She said she told police, specifically Det. Deborah Jack, that the written report she reviewed contained errors but that she was “rushed to sign it” and was told the errors would be corrected later. They were not.

She concluded by saying that she was “totally infatuated” with the senator, but emphasized. “I want to be clear. Adlah Donastorg did nothing wrong to me.”

For some reason, the Daily News reporter was compelled to tell us that the statement was not on letterhead, notarized or “sworn to as an affidavit would be;”  and went on to inform us that “in the realm of domestic violence cases, K.E,’s recanting is not a surprise,” – so what – are we supposed to just dismiss this?

And apparently the Daily News reporter also questioned Bourne’s ability to fairly represent the client by asking her whether her support of Donastorg in his 2006 bid for governor would “cloud her professional judgment” in this case.

Why are we surprised? These are the same media who refused to address the Mafoliegate issue after Jean Gereaux’s now infamous press release; who have chastised this same Senator for his initiative in bringing the public funds spending to light; who call those who publicly oppose the machinations of this administration through their participation in radio talk shows “thugs;”  and who criticize those who question the use of VI Lottery funds to finance trips to Rwanda on the pretense of helping the impoverished children there – including the trip of one who is prominently attached to The Source.

Yet they both present themselves as objective, unbiased arbiters of the facts – and we’re just tired of letting them get away with the façade.

The issue in this case is whether or not the charges as reported are true or false, and whether, if they are false, this Administration is complicit, through bribery and falsification,  in bringing shame and disgrace on a political opponent for no reason other than compromising his chances to win an election. If they are true, we expect the system to deal with it.

It’s a shame that those who present themselves as legitimate members of the “fourth estate” have relinquished their responsibility to be documents of record and instead have apparently decided to be mouthpieces for what is revealing itself to be one of the most destructive governmental organizations in the Western Hemisphere.

Joseph Pulitzer must be spinning in his grave.

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