Masa chooses silence

A member of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) has given evidence contradicting Ramoamasagana ‘Masa’ Pemberton’s claim that he did not know a video he posted on social networking site Facebook had strong sexual content.

Pemberton, who was a well-known and outspoken social media personality, is before the Magistrate’s Court for obscene publication. His trial finished this week after he opted to ‘remain silent’.

Meanwhile, according to Pemberton’s statement to police, a friend had instructed him to post the video on Facebook in 2015.

Pemberton stated that he was not able to view the video from his cellular phone, and so he blindly posted it on the social networking site.

Police officer Alston Butler testified in the Magistrate’s Court this week that he saw the video on Pemberton’s Facebook page roughly four hours after it was posted, adding that the video was captioned ‘Sigh’.

The cop, who is also a technical expert for the RVIPF, further testified that Pemberton would not have been able to post the ‘sex video’ on Facebook if it was not first viewable on his cellular phone.

He explained that Facebook uses ‘normal video-viewing software’ that is compatible across all smart devices.

“The file would have to be playable on the phone… If the file is corrupted or it is of an unusual file format, Facebook would not have accepted it,” the police computer technician said.

100 shares, 197 comments

The police officer further stated that, when he first viewed the sex video on Pemberton’s Facebook page, the post already had been shared 100 times by other social media users.

The lawman added that the video, at the time, was liked by 87 persons, and it generated 197 comments. He added that he took a screenshot of the video that was on the accused man’s page.

“As a police officer, if I see anything of interest, I screenshot it,” the cop explained, adding that he happened upon the video while he surfed the internet about 1:30 on the morning of October 1, 2015.

No exposed skin

Pemberton’s attorney Valerie Stephens-Gordon cross-examined the police officer, who agreed that no ‘exposed skin’ was seen in the video although it appeared someone was performing oral sex.

The prosecution closed its case after the police officer’s testimony. Pemberton however told the court that he will not testify in the case against him.

Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards is scheduled to deliver a verdict on September 12.