The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

MONTAGU MP Richard Lightbourn said the Opposition plans to move ahead and request a “special committee” to investigate the circumstances surrounding the nolle prosequi signed by then acting Attorney General Jerome Fitzgerald.

This is despite Mr Fitzgerald’s repeated assertions that no one has the power to question the rights of the attorney general as outlined by the Constitution; and yesterday he pointed to a situation that happened under the first FNM government involving a nolle prosequi (no prosecution).

Outside of the House of Assembly, Mr Lightbourn said he was not satisfied with Mr Fitzgerald’s explanations. He criticised it as an attempt to “brush it off.”

“They’re hiding behind the assertion that it’s a matter of national security,” he said. “The whole thing is so suspicious when you look at the circumstances under which it was granted. That is really what causes the concern and makes one suspicious that something is not right.”

The issue in question involves George and Janice Hayles who each faced a charge of possession of a firearm and ammunition, after police said they were found with a .380 pistol and 19 live rounds for the weapon.

The accused, represented by Allyson Maynard-Gibson before her appointment as Attorney General, pleaded not guilty to the charges at their arraignment days after their arrest in 2010.

The discontinuation of the charges took place last year on Friday, December 28.

The document bore Mr Fitzgerald’s signature because Mrs Maynard-Gibson was out of the country at the time.

Not long after the charges were dropped, Mr Fitzgerald issued a statement saying he was satisfied that grounds existed for his decision. He said he did so because it was a matter of national security.

He also pointed to articles in the Constitution that granted the Attorney General power to “discontinue at any stage, before judgment is delivered, any criminal proceedings” in defending himself against criticisms from the FNM.

“We’re going to pursue our request for a special committee to investigate it. It appears they refuse to give it to us but that doesn’t make it go away,” Mr Lightbourn told the press.

“That you would go and issue this to someone who was a client of the present attorney general and it just sounds too convenient that she happened to be away and the backup had to be away, and they go and appoint him acting, and he finds cause to make a beeline for the Attorney General’s Office to dig out this file out of all the hundreds – and no doubt thousands – that are up there and determine in that flash of an eye that this was a matter of which was national security.”

In the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Fitzgerald said: “Since those on the other side and the newspapers want to bring names in the paper, I’m going to take you back in time a bit... One Mr John Mosko gunned down an unarmed man in the middle of the road, in broad daylight. He was charged with murder before the courts.

“Mr Mosko applied for bail. He was represented by Sir Kendal Isaacs – who was his lawyer. The honourable Cyril Fountain was the chief justice at the time and Sir Orville Turnquest was the attorney general.

“On the application for bail made by Sir Kendal Isaacs, Sir Cyril Fountain wrote a short judgment where he stated something to the effect that ‘I’ve known Mr Mosko and his entire family all of my life, and I have no hesitation in granting bail.’ It was a big issue and it opened the flood gates to what we have today.”

Later on, Mr Fitzgerald continued, “Sir Orville Turnquest was the attorney general and issued and signed off on a nolle prosequi in favour of Mr Mosko. Over the past five years, he and his company, were awarded tens of millions of dollars of contracts from the FNM government. Now that smells... As a matter of fact, it stinks.

“So if they when they want to ask about a select committee or they want someone to talk about a nolle, I suggest they go and talk to justice Cyril Fountain, talk to Sir Orville Turnquest or Mr John Mosko and let them educate them on the nolle and the authority of an attorney general.

“But don’t come in here playing fool. Don’t come in here talking foolishness and don’t come in here impugning my integrity and my character.”

In the House of Assembly, Mr Lightbourn explained that matter “was something that was debated fully in this House.”

He said: “This unfortunately, is the problem with this government. Every matter that comes before it, they seem to excuse it by referring to some matter that happened some time ago. We’re dealing with the future. We’re dealing with this issue now.”

Mr Fitzgerald had also said yesterday: “I made the decision I made based on recommendations on the file from other agencies and other officials and that’s on the record... I don’t know them from the man on the moon. I never met them. If they walked in front of me today - I know nothing. I don’t know them.”