Grenada Today - The National Newspaper of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique

The Grenada Bar Association (GBA) is taking its case against the appointment of controversial Jamaican lawyer Hugh Wildman as the island's Attorney-General to a number of civic groups in the country.
The lawyers have despatched letters to the Grenada Trade Union Council, Conference of Churches of Grenada, Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Grenada Employers Federation among others.

On Wednesday, a five-member GBA team met for the first time with Legal Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod to discuss the current impasse in light of the decision by lawyers to boycott all court matters until the Wildman issue is resolved.

The GBA delegation was led by its President Ruggles Ferguson, and included barristers Anslem Clouden, Lisa Taylor, Lloyd Noel and Reynold Benjamin. Apart from Nimrod, the government side included Solicitor-General Avril Trotman of Guyana who is the wife of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lawrence Joseph, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Nordica Mc Intyre.

During the one-hour-and-a half hour meeting, Nimrod listened to the concerns of the lawyers and agreed to take them to Cabinet for consideration. The GBA took the issue to the nation on Tuesday night when President Ferguson addressed Grenadians about their specific fears and concerns about the move by the Keith Mitchell-led government to hand the Attorney-General post to Wildman.

Following is an edited version of the speech:

At its Annual General Meeting on January 31st, 2005, the Grenada Bar Association took the unusual and unprecedented decision, effective the following day (February 1st), to boycott all courts in the State of Grenada, including the Magistrate's Court, Master's Chambers and High Court to protest the impending appointment of Hugh Wildman as the new Attorney-General of Grenada.

The Bar was clear and unanimous in its view that Hugh Wildman was not a fit and proper person to hold the high constitutional office of Attorney General, and that any such appointment would not only bring the legal profession into disrepute, but would also bring shame and disgrace to the Government and people of Grenada.

The basis of the Bar's objection lay in the consistently unprofessional, unbecoming and outrageous conduct of Mr. Wildman since his first contact with the courts of Grenada in 1994: wantonly attacking Judges and Lawyers showing utter disrespect for the court; defying court orders; abusing the office of Director of Public Prosecutions which he once held; improperly seeking to influence jurors in the performance of their duties; having inappropriate and improper contact with Jurors; acting without due regard for the law and legal process; and generally behaving in a manner not befitting of an Attorney-at-Law and officer of the court.

The problems with Mr. Wildman date back to 1994 when he was first appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in Grenada. It must be noted that the same problems the judges and lawyers in Grenada had with Mr. Wildman, were the same problems experienced by the Judges and lawyers in Jamaica.

So his problems did not begin in Grenada. Rather, and most regrettably, he brought with him to Grenada the same outrageous conduct which was the subject of strong and widespread condemnation by the Judges and Lawyers in Jamaica.

Shortly after Mr. Wildman's first appointment as DPP (1994) he became the center of controversy and confrontation. He was involved in several unsavory incidents with both Judges and lawyers. He publicly attacked Judges when they ruled against him. He constantly made derogatory comments about members of the local Bar. He sadly demonstrated a lack of basic professional courtesy. He abused his powers as DPP. Indeed, he quickly established himself as too unprofessional, too immature, and too vindictive to hold the office of DPP - a situation which eventually led to the GBA calling for his resignation.

In or about 1995, Mr. Wildman, under pressure and protests from the Bar, resigned as DPP and returned to Jamaica. However he returned to Grenada in 1998 as Advisor to the Police, and served since then in various capacities including Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Special Prosecutor, and Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit Grenada International Financial Services Authority, a position which he currently holds.

In August 1999, despite vigorous opposition from the Bar, Mr. Wildman was appointed as Acting DPP, replacing the then Acting DPP Christopher Nelson and confirming our suspicions, that his appointment as Advisor to the Police was just a stepping stone to return him to the position of DPP.

During the six (6) months that Mr. Nelson acted as DPP he was held in high esteem by both Judges and Lawyers alike, discharging his duties with a keen sense of responsibility, integrity, humility and professionalism - a striking contrast to the approach of Wildman!

With the passage of time, Mr. Wildman's behaviour grew more and more intolerable. In 2001 after constant protests by the Bar and exposure of his misconduct, the JLSC refused to re-appoint Mr. Wildman as Acting DPP, leading to the appointment of the current DPP Mr. Christopher Nelson.

Wildman was thereafter appointed Special Prosecutor - a position unknown to our constitution - and later as Director of FIU of the Grenada International Financial Services Authority. Several incidents, some dating as far back as 1994 when Mr. Wildman was first appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), reveal his true character and conduct:

* In November 1994, after the learned trial judge, in a murder case, had upheld the submission of Mr. Kendrick Radix - a senior Attorney and former Attorney-General, Mr. Wildman, who was the DPP at the time, in a loud and violent outburst, said of and concerning Mr. Radix: "You are a bush-lawyer, you don't know any law, if I were in Jamaica I would get my boys to deal with you". Mr. Radix, in an affidavit sworn to in 1998, described Mr. Wildman as a person with "a violent and ungoverned temper" - a description supported by most Attorneys.

* As a Prosecutor, he has had improper and inappropriate contact with jurors, as evidenced by a famous photograph published several times in a local newspaper, where, in the precincts of the court at the end of Assizes, he was seen hugging jurors - some of whom had shortly before returned a "guilty" verdict in a murder case in which he (Wildman) had appeared..

* But the most appropriate adjectives used to describe Mr. Wildman's conduct, come not from Grenada, but from his native Jamaica. In a case featured in the West Indian Law Reports, {Johnson (Gregory) v R,} the Jamaica Court of Appeal described his conduct during the trial of a murder accused before Judge and Jury in the High Court as "outrageous", "indefensible", "improper" and "reprehensible".

In that case, like he has done on so many occasions in Grenada, he made frequent, improper and unfounded allegations against defense counsel in the presence of judge and jury. In quashing the conviction against the murder accused, the Court of Appeal noted, "the jury must have been distracted from their task by the conduct of prosecuting counsel (Wildman) and the appellant's trial had not been fair, despite such rebukes as the Judge had delivered to counsel".

* Time and time again local Attorneys have complained about his unprofessional and immature behaviour in court: laughing loudly, casting disparaging remarks across the Bar table and "throwing words" at opposing counsel - all aimed at distracting submissions of counsel, and, in the case of Jury trials, improperly influencing the Jury.

*On 7th June 2001, Mr. Wildman sued a resident, sitting Senior High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Brian Alleyne, alleging bias or a real danger of bias and sought a declaration that Justice Alleyne should not be a judge in ANY matter in which he (Mr. Wildman) appeared as an Attorney at Law.

The High Court inevitably dismissed the action as "wholly misconceived, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the process of the court".

* He refused to appear before Justice Alleyne in a matter (Dipcon v The AG) in which he was representing the State, behaviour which was frowned upon by the Privy Council which restored Justice Alleyne's judgment, awarding, among other things, damages of over US$11 Million against the State.

Justice Alleyne, commenting on Mr. Wildman's refusal to attend before him stated that "to put forward as a ground for an Application" for an adjournment that "an attorney is not minded to appear before a particular court before which he or she has business comes close to discourtesy to the Court. Just another example of an individual whose arrogance and discourtesy know no bounds!

* Even the Privy Council, noted that "the Government were playing fast and loose with the Court and its procedures. Time and again the Government sought to frustrate the progress of these proceedings".

*He publicly attacked (by way of a letter to a local newspaper) a senior local Attorney and former Attorney General Lloyd Noel, describing him as "an ignoramus and nincompoop" who did not attend a secondary school and who happens to be associated with the practice of law".

* In the Grenada Informer newspaper of 12th October 2001 he is quoted as describing another Senior Attorney and former Attorney-General, Dr. Francis Alexis, inter alia, as "a political brute" and the President of the Grenada Bar Association (Ruggles Ferguson) as "a fool".

* In a constitutional matter referred to the High Court by way of case from the Chief Magistrate (COP v George Worme & ors.), Justice Alleyne, in his judgment, rebuked him (Wildman) for re-formulating the questions submitted by the Magistrate for the consideration of the High Court.

So serious did Justice Alleyne consider the matter that he felt duty bound to draw it to the attention of Chief Justice Sir Dennis Byron by way of letter (October 9th, 2001). Justice Alleyne saw the matter as relating "to the duty of counsel to the court and more specifically to the ethical standard which I think the court is entitled to expect from any person holding the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions".

*According to Alleyne J, when the matter (above) was raised with Mr. Wildman in open court, he (Wildman) appeared quite indifferent. Justice Alleyne considered Wildman's formulating of the question "highly inaccurate, framed in emotive language and calculated to mislead or to prejudice the mind of the Court".