By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A QUEEN’S Counsel has been given a week to prepare his case as to why he should not be found in contempt of court and punished for his recent actions in the Court of Appeal.
Maurice Glinton, who was arrested on Friday and held for four days at the Cable Beach police station, appeared in the Court of Appeal for expected contempt proceedings stemming from his refusal to continue representing three men fighting extradition to the United States while a judge who has met the age of retirement is presiding over the matter.
The issues of contention before Justices Anita Allen, Abdulai Conteh and Neville Adderley are Mr Glinton’s actions of disrobing himself before the court and his failure to appear on a summons for a hearing on October 9.
Wayne Munroe, a fellow QC, and one of many lawyers representing Mr Glinton, requested time to research authority cases to support the submissions he intended to rely on for the proceedings.
There was no objection to the request and the contempt hearing was adjourned to October 19 at 10am in the Charlotte Street, Claughton House courtroom.
Mr Glinton, who was appointed a Queen’s Concillor in January of this year, was cited for contempt last week after he disrobed in front of the court, refusing to proceed with the appeals of Shanto Curry, Trevor Roberts and Devroy Moss because Justice Conteh, who had reached the mandatory constitutional age of retirement when he celebrated his 70th birthday on August 5, was on the panel.
Mr Glinton was of the view that the panel was not properly constituted with Justice Conteh there and would not proceed with his representation for the men who are wanted in Florida on a 2004 extradition request that alleges they belonged to a multinational smuggling gang.
Along with Mr Munroe, Mr Glinton is represented by Alfred Sears, QC, Charles McQuay, Raynard Rigby, Paul Moss and Veron Roberts.
Garvin Gaskin and Franklyn Williams, director and deputy director of public prosecutions respectively, appeared for the Crown with Loren Klein.
A justice of the Court of Appeal can be permitted to continue in office until he has reached the age of 70 “or for such a period after attaining that age as may be necessary to enable him to deliver judgment or do any thing in relation to proceedings that were started” before reaching the retirement age.
Comments
DEDDIE 8 years, 6 months ago
If the court was illegal should the police follow the orders of an illegal court. If the court was illegal then the police carrying out the order of the court automatically results in an unlawful arrest. Sounds like a law suit to me.
The_Oracle 8 years, 6 months ago
No, sounds like what typically passes for Justice in the Bahamas. The rule of law is so bent I doubt it could ever be straightened out. And we wonder why the youth are running around taking matters into their own hands.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 6 months ago
Christie will have a word with Maynard-Gibson, the contempt charge will then be dropped and the poor Court of Appeal will be left with egg all over its face. Let's not forget that it's Christie and Maynard-Gibson who call all of the shots in our judicial system. The Bahamas has no such thing as an independent judiciary to protect society from certain lawyers, like Glinton and Maynard-Gibson, who believe they are above the law. Glinton's disrespectful misconduct was indeed contemptuous and yet another shining example of the fact that too many undeserving lawyers are being allowed to take silk these days. Being a Q.C. today certainly does not carry the distinction that it once did because of the likes of Glinton and the self-annointed Maynard-Gibson.
TruePeople 8 years, 6 months ago
My bey when you runnin for PM jhed? You does talk more sense in a paragraph than I can find in the whole political history of this country. All dese gov't people dem act like laws don't apply to them...
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