![\"Jerome](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/jerome-fitzgerald-e1357134508129.jpg\" "\\"jerome-fitzgerald\\"")
In what appears to be another outrageous case of selective justice, Acting Attorney General Jerome Fitzgerald, suddenly and without justification, signed a written directive to have gun and ammunition charges against a couple discontinued.<\/p>\nIn what appears to be another outrageous case of selective justice, Acting Attorney General Jerome Fitzgerald, suddenly and without justification, signed a written directive to have gun and ammunition charges against a couple discontinued.<\/p>\n
Fitgerald says he did so because it was a matter of national security.\u00a0 Say what?<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald, who was appointed Acting AG because Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson was “conveniently” out of the country, said that his review of the file relating to George and Janice Hayes led to him concluding that the matter should be discontinued.<\/p>\n
The charges were discontinued on Friday.<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald said that Mrs Maynard-Gibson “left the jurisdiction of The Bahamas on Government business” on the 28th day of November 2012.<\/p>\n
“In the absence of the Attorney General I acted as Attorney General. During the absence of Mrs Maynard-Gibson, I reviewed the file relating to Janice Hayes and George Hayes and satisfied myself that it was appropriate to discontinue the prosecution.<\/p>\n
“As a consequence, I executed a nolle prosequi. This is a matter of national security and as a consequence I have no further comment on this subject.”<\/p>\n
Curiously, Mr Fitzgerald gave no further explanation as to what aspect of the case had anything to do with national security.<\/p>\n
The Hayes each faced a charge of possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition.<\/p>\n
It was claimed that on February 3, 2010 the two were found in possession of a .380 pistol and 19 live rounds of ammunition for the weapon.<\/p>\n
Both Janice and George Hayes pleaded not guilty to the charges at their arraignment, days after their arrest in 2010. They have continued to deny the allegations against them.<\/p>\n
On December 21, their attorney was expected to make a closing address to the court concerning the evidence brought against her clients.<\/p>\n
However, prosecutor ASP Ercel Dorsett brought correspondence from the Attorney General’s office giving a directive to discontinue proceedings.<\/p>\n
Adding to the mystery surrounding this case, the nolle prosequi was not dated and it was not clear who had signed it.<\/p>\n
Consequently, it was rejected by the deputy chief magistrate due to the ommisions and the prosecutor was asked to send the document back. The case was adjourned to December 28.<\/p>\n
Last Friday, Garvin Gaskin, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, appeared before the court and said the issues that had arisen concerning the document had been rectified.<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Magistrate Bethell inspected the document and asked Gaskin who the Acting Attorney General was who had signed the directive.<\/p>\n
“The Acting Attorney General at the time was Jerome Fitzgerald,” said Mr Gaskin.<\/p>\n
This was especially strange, as it should have been Deputy AG Damien Gomez who shoud have been left in charge when Mrs Maynard-Gibson left the country.\u00a0 There was no explanation offered as to why that did not happen.<\/p>\n
The magistrate addressed the couple and told them of the document’s contents.<\/p>\n
However, she said, the matter could be brought back at any time the Attorney General wished as the pair were not acquitted, only discharged.<\/p>\n
DEA chiefs in The United States have expressed concern about the “Nigerian” style of justice that is occurring under the PLP.<\/p>\n
FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis has called for an investigation to be made into this most unsual state of affairs<\/p>\n
It should be noted that Mr Hayes does bodywork on Mrs Maynard-Gibsons’s vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In what appears to be another outrageous case of selective justice, Acting Attorney General Jerome Fitzgerald suddenly and without justification signed a written directive to have gun and ammunition charges against a couple discontinued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[93,32,31,237,142,49],"class_list":["post-29735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-corruption","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-guns","tag-incompetence","tag-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}