Reigning Miss Cayman Islands Universe Tiffany Conolly took to the stand on Monday, 5 Dec., to give her version of events at the resumption of her Summary Court assault trial.
Conolly, 24, of West Bay, faces two counts of common assault, two counts of damage to property, two counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of disorderly conduct. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The charges stem from an incident in October 2021 during which Conolly is alleged to have assaulted the main victim and his son, her ex-boyfriend, in a fit of rage, after which she allegedly assaulted a female officer after being taken to the Cayman Islands Detention Centre, which was captured on CCTV.
Her 17 Oct. trial was originally slated to wrap that same day, but was extended because, at the close of proceedings, the prosecution was still presenting evidence.
While giving evidence on Monday, during the judge-alone trial before Magistrate Phillippa McFarlane, Conolly refuted several of the assertions made by the prosecution and the complainants, claiming she was the victim who had been “manipulated” and “deliberately set up”.
Though Conolly acknowledged “there were always feelings” between the victim’s son and herself, and there was “a romantic element to it”, she said the two “were never actually in a relationship”.
Conolly told the court the two became acquainted when she sold him her car, adding that on the night in question she went his residence to end their friendship.
“[He] kept calling me to come over, but then he would text me to say, “Don’t come”. But I went because I trusted the voice I heard during the call as opposed to the messages which could have been sent by someone else who had access to his phone,” said Conolly.
She told the court that when she arrived at the residence, the father answered the door and proceeded to assault her.
“When he opened the door he pushed me from the top of their three-step porch, causing me to fall and hurt my back,” said Conolly. “Then he got on top of me and pinned me down on the ground and said that I am going to jail tonight… I looked up and could see [his son] telling him to get off me because this did not look good that a grown man was holding down a woman.”
According to Conolly, the man eventually released her “after she fought back”, but soon after restrained her again.
“I could see [his son] coming and I thought he was going to join his father. I felt threatened and so I just wanted to keep him at hands-length distance, so I kicked him in the groin,” she said.
Conolly denied throwing the bicycle she had ridden to the location onto the bonnet of the main victim’s SUV. However, she accepted that she threw a block into the windscreen of the son’s car.
“At that time, I thought he still owed me money for the car so technically it was still mine, and after how he was treating me, he shouldn’t get to drive,” said Conolly. “So, I threw the rock into the windscreen.”
The remaining charges relate to Conolly’s interactions with officers at the detention centre.
In the CCTV recording, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, Conolly can be seen sitting quietly, and occasionally responding to officers while she is being processed. However, things are said to have escalated when an RCIPS constable attempted to remove rings from Conolly’s fingers.
Conolly is said to have punched the police officer at that point; however, the view of that alleged interaction was obstructed due to the angle of the camera.
In the video, Conolly can be seen throwing her earrings to the ground when officers asked her to hand them over.
Not long after that, she stood up, grabbed the chair she was sitting on and threw it a short distance away, before telling officers that she was the victim of a serious assault, which had eventually led to medical complications.
“I told police about it and [until] now nothing has been done about it,” Conolly can be heard saying in the video, and she then proceeded to swear at the officers.
She will be back on the stand Tuesday, and the trial is expected to conclude tomorrow. She has been released on bail.
Conolly, who still retains her crown as Miss Cayman Islands Universe 2022-2023, has been suspended from making all public appearances in her capacity as the pageant’s queen until a verdict is reached in her trial.
First runner-up Chloe Powery-Doxey has been selected to represent Cayman at the upcoming Miss Universe pageant in January, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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