Georgetown: Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams who has found himself in the hot seat after making derogatory remarks before High Court Judge, Justice Franklin Holder has committed to resolving the issue.
Justice Holder had written a letter of complaint to the Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, as it relates to an incident in the High Court last week involving Williams.
The issue had come to the fore when Attorney-at-law, Anil Nandlall alleged that Williams had threatened to kill Justice Holder, causing the judge to walk off the bench during a court case involving Carvil Duncan. The Attorney General had denied the allegation.
However, the Judge in his letter to the Acting Chancellor detailed the incident, which led to him walking off the Bench without adjourning the case. The AG had questioned whether the Judge recorded the correct answer from the witness he cross-examined and according to Justice Holder, he told Williams that he took umbrage to his tone. The Judge said Williams responded by saying that the last person who told him what he should not say was a Magistrate and he is now dead.
The Judge wrote that the AG went on to say: “I could say what I want to say and however I want to say it, I have always been like that.” It was at this time that the Judge walked off the Bench.
Justice Holder said he found the statement to be egregious and told the Acting Chancellor that he wants a genuine and meaningful apology from Williams in open court.
Meanwhile, in a statement to the media on Wednesday, March 29, 2017, the Attorney General maintained that Justice Holder endured nearly three hours of “barracking” from Nandlall and it is only reasonable for him [Williams] to fall prey to “transferred frustration.”
“Perhaps, his detaining the Learned Judge again as he was preparing to leave the Bench, seeking clarity on whether the witness’s answer of ‘no’ was recorded, induced certain misapprehensions in the Judge’s mind in all the circumstances and the Attorney General became the victim of transferred frustration,” a statement from the AG’s Chambers noted on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the AG is prepared “to work with the Learned Judge to resolve what was a fleeting engagement after the business of the day was completed.”
However, according to Nandlall the AG did threaten the judge and he is hoping a full investigation will be launched by the judiciary and the President deals with the matter condignly.
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