Don’t become another Gene Miles

MARILIN SAMMY WALLACE is contending that two years ago her queries about expenses for certain Industrial Court officials were met with a threat to remove her as acting registrar of the court.

Among the persons she held discussions with about the threat was former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide. The former CJ, Sammy-Wallace stated in a case she has filed in court seeking judicial review of a decision of the Judicial and Service Commission to remove her, advised her to give up her position as registrar of the court. De la Bastide, Sammy-Wallace stated, warned her that if she stayed on, she could become a victim, and become the next Gene Miles.

Sammy-Wallace, also an attorney, who was yesterday granted leave by Justice Peter Jamadar to file for judicial review stated in an 18-page affidavit her complaints to de La Bastide. She is challenging the commission’s decision to remove her last year as registrar of the court. In June 2002, Sammy-Wallace stated, she tried to raise with the Court’s officials the Auditing Assistant’s query concerning leave passage paid to certain officers in 2000. She was told, she said, that it was unthinkable that Parliament would allocate millions of dollars to the court without the Court having full authority to make purchases as it saw fit. She said that on July 12, 2002, she was summoned to a meeting with de la Bastide at the Hall of Justice. He was also the chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission.

De la Bastide, she said, told her that he well understood the position she was in and informed her that she could challenge whatever the outcome of the Industrial Court’s report on her performance. He also said: “That I could fight it in court provided I had the energy to do so. He also suggested that I could choose to remain at the court and become a victim, and the next Gene Miles.” She also contended that at the meeting, the former CJ asked her if she would not consider applying to him for a transfer out of the Industrial Court. The case has been fixed for hearing in July before Justice Peter Jamadar.