The Tribune

By TRIBUNE NEW STAFF

newsroom@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY Romona Farquharson believes the Bahamas Bar Association (BBA) president should say whether an attorney at the centre of a high-profile investigation involving a senior police officer would be allowed to sit on the association’s committees pending the outcome of the police probe.

The Tribune understands that the lawyer has a committee role at the Bar Association.

Bar president Kahlil Parker has not answered or responded to calls and messages and has not spoken publicly about the controversy.

The case, which has local and international attention, involves the leak of five voice notes purportedly involving a financial quid-pro-quo arrangement among a senior officer, a lawyer, and two recently murdered men police said were gang members: Michael Fox, Jr, and Dino Smith.

Ms Farquharson acknowledged that the Bar cannot act unless a complaint has been filed.

A complaint, she said, would come from the police commissioner. She said given that Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander has said the matter is under investigation, a complaint to the Bar may not be a current issue.

However, she said the president could speak on other matters.

“Arguments can be made for and against that,” she said. “But again, the president, he is the president. He leads the Bahamas Bar Association, and it’s curious that he’s silent, but he ought not be.”

“I mean, I do know that he, the particular attorney, may be represented by him, and I hope that that’s perhaps not what’s causing him a conflict in speaking, but he does represent him in certain civil matters that I’m on the opposite side of so I’m aware of that relationship. “But I would hope that it would not impede him or prevent him from doing what is right with respect to the Bar.” 

Mrs Farquharson said depending on the outcome of the investigation, the case could have far-reaching implications.

“So much hinges on what’s going to come of the investigation and whether or not charges will be laid,” she said.