Copeland stated this in his written response to the Senate and House Committees on Judiciary and Governmental Affairs queries regarding the allegations against him ranging from overstepping authority, professional ethics and competence.
Sen. Joel Toribiong, chair of the JGA committee said members of both panels of Congress will meet today to review the response and determine the next step to take on the matter.
“I would like to state definitively that I have acted competently, ethically and within the scope of authority of my office at every turn,” Copeland said.
The committees questioned the competence of Copeland in handling the court cases of Health Minister Stevenson Kuartei, Ombudsman Moses Uludong and Assistance Attorney General Ronald Ledgerwood.
Kuartei and Ledgerwood were both charged with DUI, prosecution of both cases were handled by Copeland but ended with dismissals.
Copeland said that there is no evidence to support the contention on how he handled both cases.
The committees also noted that Copeland also undermined the country’s overall prosecution of the collapsed Pacific Savings Bank case that resulted in the acquittal of one of the former bank’s officials.
Copeland served as Independent Counsel at that time.
In this allegation, Copeland’s response was he handled the case properly citing that if the court “makes a mistake of law, there is nothing we can do. We simply have to accept it.”
The Committee also questioned Copeland’s overstepping his authority on a number of different legal matters throughout Palau.
One of them, it cited that Copeland has allegedly tried to obstruct the transfer of the Independent Counsel responsibilities to the new independent counsel.
Copeland response to this is that it is false and accused the new IC Nelson Werner that “ he simply has no idea was he is doing.”
The committees also questioned Copeland’s action relating to the employees at Ashibi Karaoke Bar.
The lawmakers said Copeland overstepped his bounds by getting involved in the case which is supposed to be out of his jurisdiction.
Copeland said that it was within his rights to help the Ashibi employees.
He admitted that his office did advise the workers to make a complaint with the Labor when discovered that they have not been paid.
“That is no way outside of our authority. If we are doing an investigation and along the way we find out that there are other crimes committed, it is perfectly within our rights and indeed our responsibility to direct those people to the appropriate law enforcement channels,” Copeland argued.
Earlier Copeland did not want to submit a written response to the OEK saying that he rather argues his points during a public hearing.
The panels however warned him against non-submission of written response.
