Newly minted Attorney General Larry Mussenden had prosecutors in stitches with a humorous take on parking tickets, stalking and defending alleged criminals when he opened a legal seminar at the weekend.

"The fact that I am standing here today is not lost on me as there have been so many factors at work against my presence here," he told the gathering of more than 100 government officials.

"I could find no parking space outside and as I was trying to squeeze my car into a 'no parking' zone, the traffic warden jumped out of the trees with her ticketing machine at hand. Fortunately, she was rushing straight past me to put some tickets on some cars that were more familiar to her."

Mr. Mussenden had been asked to open a seminar on disclosure practices in criminal investigations and was making his first official address as Attorney General.

"After the traffic warden jumped out of the trees, a deranged lady jumped out behind her and chased me all the way into the building telling me in one breath that she loved me and in the next breath that she wanted to kill me. I think they call that stalking," he continued.

Last week Mr. Mussenden revealed that he has been stalked by a woman for the past three years. Turning to the subject under discussion he said that defence lawyers needed disclosure so they could advise their "innocent angels" who have been so wrongly accused of some crime.

He gave examples from his own experience as a defence lawyer to illustrate the importance of having clear rules on disclosure.

"The Investigation team of the Bermuda Customs Department may remember a certain defence lawyer jostling with them to get information and client's statements when the clients brought electronic equipment into Bermuda and innocently forgot to declare the items. You try to get information out of Bermuda Customs, especially when your client tells you he "just clarified some things to the Customs lady", he said.

"Prosecutors and Police alike may well remember a recent major drugs importation case involving a supergrass sailor and his sailboat from the Caribbean. Defence Counsel were asking, requesting, cajoling, threatening, even begging to get disclosure on the background to the sailor and disclosure on suspected wiretaps. Try getting disclosure on those kinds of evidence."

He continued : "Prosecutors, Police and Government Laboratory doctors may well remember a recent murder case where defence counsel concentrated on samples of blood taken from the defendant in the lab. How much disclosure was asked for and received in relation to that one medical witness?"

The defence lawyer's "lot in life" often involved clients "who have at best, a vague idea about charges levied against them but who have no clear idea what are the specifics of their own case" and trying to argue a case effectively with statements that arrive two days before a trial begins. "The defence lawyer's lot in life is relying on your client telling you that he didn't make any statements and then you receive the papers a day before trial and you find several detailed confessions, Q&As and re-enactments of the crime. And still your client tells you "I didn't make a statement, I was just clarifying some things that the police accused me of" .

But he said some things had changed for the better . "For summary prosecutions I remember when Defence Counsel had to attend Police Prosecutions and peruse the statements, allowed only to take notes. Now after pleading not guilty, defence counsel for a summary trial can write to the DPP for the papers and eventually they will receive them. Even the Magistrates now adopt a policy that they will adjourn a trial if the papers have not been provided for a summary matter. Well, perhaps I should say, some Magistrates," Mr. Mussenden said.

"However, disclosure extends beyond the provision of defendants and witness statements. As investigators, whether you are Police or from other branches of Government I suspect that in your true investigators' hearts, souls and minds there exists a burning desire to not disclose certain things to the defence. For some of you that I have dealt with you don't want to disclose anything to the defence. As investigators you have your informants to protect, you have your star witnesses to protect, you have ongoing investigations that could be hampered, you have your latest technological methods of surveillance and detection to protect and you have the interests of State Security to protect. And of course, the defence wants all of that material."

He ended by quoting legal authorities that prosecutors' only interest was not in getting a conviction but that "the right person be convicted, that the truth should be known and that justice should be done".