Blocked from becoming Grenada’s AG —

HUGH WILDMAN has promised to take his judicial review case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England if he does not succeed in overturning the decision of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission of the Eastern Caribbean States which refused to recommend him to be the next Attorney General of Grenada.

Wildman lost round one last Wednesday when the Grenada High Court dismissed his case and ordered him to pay costs. He filed an appeal on Thursday and when Sunday Newsday contacted him on Friday, Wildman said he intends taking his fight all the way to the Privy Council.

“I am not satisfied with the decision of the High Court. I have to be vindicated because I have done nothing wrong,” Wildman added.

Wildman, a former DPP in Grenada, has retained the services of former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC to fight his battle. Sydney Bennett QC represents the Judicial and Legal Services Commission.

On December 23, 2004, the Government of Grenada forwarded to the Commission a recommendation that Wildman be appointed to the Office of Attorney General in Grenada from February 1, 2005.

That recommendation was met with much disquiet and public protest by the Grenada Bar Association, including marching through the streets of St George’s and the boycotting of the courts by some members of the Bar.

The president of the Bar Association, Ruggles Ferguson, communicated to the Commission its strenuous opposition to Wildman. In light of the concerns raised by the Bar Association, the Commission convened a meeting at the Grenada Grand Beach Resort.

At that meeting, the acting chairman of the Commission, Justice Adrian Saunders (now a judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice), requested that Wildman comment on the allegations made against him.

He denied any wrongdoing. Featured in the allegations was an email allegedly sent by one Lawrence Jones suggesting that Wildman had been guilty of misconduct in helping to avoid certain investigations by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Wildman explained to the Commission that all the allegations made against him in the Jones email were false.

At the end of the meeting, the Commission decided it would not advise the governor general to appoint Wildman to the office of the attorney general.

Even attorney general Elvin Nimrod and lawyers wrote to the Commission asking them to reconsider their decision and consider Wildman’s nomination. But the Commission stuck to its original position and refused to budge.

Among the documents before High Court Judge Davidson Kelvin Baptiste, was an affidavit from Josephine Huggins, a member of the Commission.

She spoke of the many instances of rowdy, uncouth and unprofessional behaviour on the part of Wildman which were matters recorded in judgments of the court and in the personal experiences of judges.

But Ramesh Maharaj SC contended at the hearing that Wildman was at no time informed of any judgment of the Grenada Courts or of the personal experience of any judge which suggested that he had been guilty of “rowdy, uncouth and unprofessional behaviour.”

But Sydney Bennett QC did not leave it there. He went ahead and listed Wildman’s behaviour:

(1) “Mr Wildman’s conduct as DPP of Grenada when during the course of a criminal trial, he accosted the defence attorney Bernard Radix and in full view and hearing of the public gathered in and around the court, told Mr Radix, ‘you don’t know any law, if I were in Jamaica, I would get my boys to deal with you,” while transforming the fingers of his hand into the shape of a gun.’

(2) “Mr Wildman’s public attack on former attorney general Lloyd Noel by describing him as ‘an ignoramus and nincompoop...who did not attend a secondary school and who happens to be associated with the practice of law.’”

(3) “Mr Wildman’s description of former attorney general Dr Francis Alexis as a ‘hypocrite, political dinosaur and desperate political brute.’”

(4) “Mr Wildman’s inappropriate contact with jurors as a prosecutor and various inappropriate comments made concerning judges and others concerned with the administration of justice.”

(5) “Mr Wildman’s conduct of the Trinidad case of Dipcon v the Attorney General and his refusal to appear before then High Court Judge Mr Justice Brian Alleyne QC, which the Privy Council criticised as ‘playing fast and loose with the court and its procedures...”

In his 26-page judgment, Baptiste said the Commission was concerned with the question whether it should advise the governor general to appoint Wildman to the office of attorney general. He pointed out that Wildman was not before the Commission on any disciplinary matter.

Baptiste noted there was a continuing feud between the Grenada Bar and Wildman which had previously manifested itself in its opposition to Wildman’s admission to the local Bar and its opposition to his re-appointment as DPP.

Baptiste found that the Commis-sion treated Wildman fairly and that the action taken was legal. He dismissed the application for judicial review and ordered Wildman to pay costs.

In his appeal and among his grounds, Wildman contended that during the period of the case, the Commission did not pay the judge’s salary in a timely manner.

This was supported by a letter dated April 4 written by Ruggles Ferguson, president of the Grenada Bar Association complaining to the Registrar of the Supreme Court of the great inconvenience meted out to Baptiste.

Ferguson said the judge had been receiving his salary late since December 2005 and up to April 4, had not received his salary for March.

Ferguson added, “given the problems that Baptiste experienced in the last several months regarding this matter, his several complaints and the high judicial office he holds, we find it incomprehensible that the problem remains unchecked and recurring, causing great embarrassment to himself and his family.”