Magistrate Alex Moore to face JSC today

Mar 05, 2015 News

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Embattled Magistrate Alex Moore will today be afforded a hearing before the relatively new Judicial Service

Commission (JSC), after enduring 97 days of suspension.
The five members of the JSC are slated to convene around 15:00 hours in the conference room of the Court of Appeal, High Street, Kingston for an official inquiry into allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against the Magistrate by East Coast Demerara businesswoman, Seerojanie Singh.
Kaieteur News has been reliably informed that, as a standard requirement, the statements of the complainant have already been dispatched to Moore and at the hearing he will be afforded a chance to defend himself.
Senior Counsel Rex McKay has been retained to represent Moore’s interest before the Commission.
It has been three months since Moore, who had been dispensing matters at the busy Sparendaam Magistrates’ Court, was served a suspension letter by the JSC following allegations made by Singh.
The decision to suspend Moore came as no real surprise since around the said time Moore was being showered in severe criticisms for handing down a five-year suspended sentence to confessed drug dealer, Leonard Bacchus.
Moore, unlike other Magistrates sanctioned by the JSC, has not taken any action against the Commission and was waiting for his hearing, his lawyer previously revealed to this publication.
City Magistrate Chandra Sohan, who recently received marching orders from the Commission, had weighed heavily on Rule 80 of the Commission’s rule which specifies that if no such inquiry is held within 60 days, then the Magistrate can return to work.
The JSC’s Rule 80, sub rule six, specifies that in such an event the suspension is deemed to have been set aside; the effect being as if the suspension had never taken place.
In fact, when questioned about his client’s stance on this rule, McKay acknowledged that the rule had indeed been violated in Moore’s case but said that his client was waiting for his day before the Commission. He said when the time arises, they will deal with it.
It is the JSC who will decide Moore’s fate.
Singh, who resides and operates her business at Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara told Kaieteur News that she appeared before Moore after being cross charged with a man for using abusive language.
The woman explained that the case against her was dismissed and as the matter against the man continued to be heard, the Magistrate, with the file before him, confronted her about each of the alleged abusive words which stemmed from the encounter.
She explained that he questioned both of the defendants about the documented profanities and degrading demand for sexual favours.
By way of complaint, the businesswoman approached the Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, and wrote to the Chancellor of the Judiciary as well as to Ombudsman, Justice Winston Moore. Within days, Moore was suspended.
Contacted by this publication yesterday, the businesswoman told this publication that she had not heard from the JSC.
Days after she made public the “torment” she claimed to have endured at the hands of Magistrate Moore, she was summoned to the Sparendaam Police Station by an Assistant Superintendent of Police to give a statement in the matter.
In fact, the woman said that she had not heard from the Commission and was unaware that Moore is appearing before the Commission today. She said too that she had only found out that he was suspended via media reports.
Moore also featured prominently in the news last year when he handed down an unprecedented suspended five-year sentence to a man who pleaded guilty to trafficking in more than 60 kilograms of cocaine, worth $300M.
The man, Leonard Bacchus was also given ‘a slap on the wrist’ suspended sentence of two years for being in unlawful possession of 125, 12-guade cartridges and 115, .32 rounds of ammunition, which also stemmed from the raid on his block 20 Enmore/Haslington Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara home on August 16, 2001.
The Magistrate’s decision highlighted the disparity in sentencing, where other sections of society are sentenced to draconian time in prison for far lesser amounts of cocaine or offences.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had signaled her intension to appeal the sentence handed down by Magistrate Moore, since there is no provision in the laws of Guyana for non-custodial sentence for persons found guilty of drug trafficking.
The Magistrate reportedly defended his decision by pointing to the length of time and resources the defendant expended on the case which took three years to be completed.
However, his decision did not go down well with President of the Guyana Bar Association Ronald Burch-Smith, who described it as highly unusual.
“It is highly unusual. I don’t know what he heard or what the situation is exactly, but in the normal course of things, this (the suspended sentence) would not happen.
“The section specifies and would have at least made way for some jail time and the fine is mandatory – here the sentence is highly unusual…Mr. Moore seems to be breaking new ground here,” the Attorney-at-Law is on record as saying.
It is the said Moore whose decision to sentence a popular radio show host, Ossie Rogers last year was overruled by the High Court which deemed that he had overstepped his boundary by ordering the man complete community service on a traffic offence.
Recently, the JSC dismissed Magistrates Sohan and Geeta Chandan-Edmond, who both presided in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, on a number of infractions. Both Attorneys-at-Law have since stated publically that the JSC’s decisions were unjust.
Sohan, who faced years-old allegations, said that he never had an inquiry but rather appeared briefly before the commission. Similarly, Chandan-Edmond was dragged before the JSC for matters dating back to 2009.
While Sohan had pointedly stated that the decision to remove him was solely because he, the longest serving Magistrate, was tipped to be Chief, there are allegations in the media that Chandan-Edmond’s dismissal was politically motivated since she had tried and convicted a high ranking official’s son.
Both lawyers complained too that the complainant and the adjudicator in their proceedings were the JSC.
Moore is off on full pay.

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