Liberia: “I stand by my statement”

Reacting to the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Charloe Musu murder case, pathologist Dr Benedict Kolee has reiterated his testimony, stressing that neither he nor the defence pathologist found male DNA in the home of Cllr Gloria Musu Scott.

Dr. Kolee, a prominent Liberian pathologist trained by the United Nations, refuted claims by Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh that he misled the Criminal Court A judge and the jury during the trial in which three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment.

In its August 28 ruling, the Supreme Court expressed doubts about the credibility of Dr. Kolee, the state-appointed pathologist at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center.

The Supreme Court found inconsistencies in Dr Kolee’s testimony which the court found contributed to an inaccurate life sentence for Cllr Musu-Scott and her relatives. During the trial, the Supreme Court found that Dr Kolee gave misleading information to Judge Roosevelt Willie and the jury of Criminal Court ‘A’.

First, Chief Justice Yuoh noted that Dr Kolee had testified as a state witness that only female DNA samples were found at the crime scene. However, he later changed his testimony to admit the presence of male DNA on the victim’s left fingernail. This change in his testimony came when he was called as a rebuttal witness to challenge the DNA report of Dr Mathias Okeye, a Nigerian pathologist working in the US.

She emphasized how important the inaccuracies in Dr. Kolee’s analysis were in the decision to overturn the conviction.

But Dr Kollie reacted sharply to the verdict, which was published in the Daily Observer last week, in a statement released in Monrovia over the weekend. Dr Kollie stood by his original statements in court and stressed that he and his team had made no mistake in their analysis of the case.

He said that while he did not intend to comment further on a case in which the Supreme Court had already made a ruling, he stood firmly by his statement made in court during the trial.

He says the victim, Charloe Musu, was stabbed to death.

“I stand by all the statements made in court during the hearing in this case,” Dr. Kolee said in the statement released in Monrovia over the weekend. “I want to state clearly and unequivocally that neither I nor my team did anything wrong in this case. The perpetrators in this case are those who stabbed Charloe Musu at least nine times and ultimately murdered her.”

He expressed his strong belief that the focus should remain on finding the perpetrators of Charloe Musu’s murder and not on continuing the trial in the court of public opinion.

“It would make more sense for the judiciary to focus its attention and resources on finding the killers of Charloe Musu, a human being who has the same rights under our law as any other Liberian,” he said.

Dr. Kolee pointed out that continuing to litigate this case in a “court of public opinion,” as demonstrated by the ongoing media campaign aimed at incriminating “innocent individuals like us,” would be a disservice that we do not deserve, given our enormous unpaid contributions to the Liberian criminal justice system.

Dr. Kolee described the events surrounding the case and pointed out specific details of the investigation and the subsequent proceedings.

“On the fateful Wednesday evening of February 22, 2023, three security guards were watching the heavily fortified house of the former Chief Justice when one of the security guards was alarmed that the little girl (Charloe) had been crying in the house for the past few hours. His colleagues responded that the girl was ‘stubborn’ and “perhaps the Oldma was disciplining her,” he said in the statement. “The security guard said he went from the Palava hut where they were sitting to the window of Cllr. Scott’s house and saw Gertrude Newton (one of the former convicts) standing at the window.”

“At this point, Gertrude [had] alerted that there was an attacker in the house. It later emerged that Charloe’s half-dead body was lying in Cllr. Scott’s bathroom. Cllr. Scott said in a police interview that she saw the attacker and sprayed him with pepper spray, but when first responders entered the house, no attacker could be found.”

Dr. Kolee added that an investigation was launched immediately, but was put on hold for nearly three weeks after Councilman Verdier gave a vivid but misleading description of the suspected killers.

He found that Verdier’s tip was unhelpful and distracted investigators for nearly three weeks.

“These unfounded statements also influenced public opinion and had a negative impact on the investigation.”

The pathologist pointed out that former Judge Scott later appeared with her lawyers and gave evidence when she was called for questioning.

He emphasized the efforts of him and his team, which included conducting an autopsy and carefully handling important evidence.

“Our team was then asked to conduct an autopsy on the remains of Charloe Musu to determine the scientific cause of death. At about the same time, Councillor Scott made an official request to the Ministry of Justice that the family be allowed to view the remains of Charloe Musu before the autopsy could be conducted. This request was granted, but I insisted that this could only be done in my presence and in the presence of police officers as the remains constituted crucial evidence,” he said.

“Our autopsy report was condemned by Councillor Scott’s legal team and there was speculation that a second autopsy would have been conducted. Even in the face of a second autopsy, there were several requests from Councillor Scott to release Charloe Musu’s remains to the family for burial, a move I opposed because it amounted to destruction of evidence as the case was still before the courts.”

Dr Kolee further recalled that despite his opposition to the motion, Councillor Augustine Fayiah (the current Solicitor General) was granted permission to receive and bury Charloe Musu while the family was in prison.

Fortunately, he explained, the funeral did not take place before the second autopsy.

“Had this happened, it would have been a repeat of the Angel Topka case, where the same Nigerian pathologist (Mathias Okoye) performed an autopsy on the skeletal remains of Angel Tokpa and ruled that no injuries were found, leading to the acquittal of two convicted murderers (Hans Capehart Williams and his fiancée Madia Paykue); the two faced the death penalty. Hans and his fiancée fled straight from court to the US, I have no evidence that they have ever returned to Liberia since.”

He clarified that Dr Okoye was not an independent pathologist as the public believed since he was appointed by the former Chief Justice.

According to him, pathologist Okoye arrived at St. Moses Funeral Home with his wife, daughter and a retired police officer who was said to be the forensic investigator.

He revealed that the management of St. Moses Funeral Home was not informed about the impending second autopsy and subsequently called the Ministry of Justice to issue the power of attorney to Dr. Okoye.

“I then informed Dr Okoye that he should have asked the funeral home to take Charloe Musu’s remains out of the freezer at least 12 hours before the autopsy to thaw them. I expressed my doubts that he could not possibly conduct an autopsy on frozen remains. He replied that it was possible and he just needed the green light.”