Grenada could have another new Acting Chief Magistrate.
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Jerry Seales |
Informed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the current holder of the post, Jerry Seales wants the Judicial & Legal Services Commission (JLSC) to grant him three months no pay leave from the job.
The move comes less than two months after Seales was appointed to act as Chief Magistrate after the holder of the post, Patricia Mark ran into problems with the previous government of Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell.
Seales, the sitting Magistrate in the Eastern District of St. Andrew's, was brought in to take over from Mark.
According to a well-placed source, Seales has apparently run into a bit of problem with the new Attorney-General, Jimmy Bristol of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
A source who asked not to be named said that Bristol took issue with moves made by Seales to transfer some of the current list of Magistrates to new posting without his input.
He spoke of Seales making the moves on July 8 - the day of the general election in which the Mitchell government was voted out by the electorate and replaced by Congress.
He could not say whether the previous government had an input in the moves made by Seales to transfer Magistrates and give some new assignments.
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AG Bristol (Swearing in) |
However, he said that Bristol felt that as the new Attorney-General he should have been consulted on any decision with respect to Magistrates in the country.
Seales was brought in to take over from Mark who ran into problems with the Mitchell government on cases involving two of his so-called enemies.
The Acting Chief Magistrate was forced to take legal action against the previous New National Party (NNP) government over the manner in which it sought to end her tenure on the job.
Ex-Prime Minister Mitchell is said to have been angered by Mark's failure to handle to his satisfaction cases that he brought against George Worme, Editor of the GRENADA TODAy newspaper who was charged with Criminal Libel and Michael Mitchell, a former Opposition Leader.
Dr. Mitchell had requested Mark to leave the St. George's jurisdiction and travel to the Eastern District to take charge of a case that was brought against Baptiste in connection with monies donated by Japan to secure St. George's vote on an important whaling issue.
Mark is said to have rejected the offer on the grounds that there is already a sitting Magistrate in St. Andrew's who was handling the matter.
The ex-Prime Minister was reportedly anxious to get the cases against Worme and Baptiste move as expeditiously as possible from the Magistrate Court to the high court for trial before a judge and jury.
In his 13 years in office, Dr. Mitchell has often been accused of trying to control the local judiciary.
