Thomas-Felix refuses to give up Panday case

Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix is reportedly resisting her transfer from the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court to the San Fernando Court from next Monday, February 17.

Thomas-Felix is also refusing to remove herself from hearing the summary trial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday due to start on February 24 in the PoS Fourth Court, the tribunal over which she currently presides.

Thomas-Felix, sources said yesterday, has no intention of handing the Panday case over to Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls, who asked her for the case in late November. Sources added that the case would have to be "physically taken" from Thomas-Felix, that is, moved by McNicolls to his own court.

Thomas-Felix also has no intention of going to the San Fernando court to which, some sources said, she has been banished.

The stand-off between Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls who ordered her transfer south in January, and Thomas-Felix is now so heated that Chief Justice Sat Sharma has had to become involved in what has been described as an exchange of terse letters between Mc Nicolls and Thomas-Felix. Sharma has reportedly spoken to both McNicolls and Thomas-Felix about the matter.

Newsday understands that Thomas-Felix told Mc Nicolls in one of her letters that his demand that he hear the Panday case instead of her, casts aspersions on her competence to sit and hear a high profile matter.

Sources said that Thomas-Felix, the youngest attorney ever to be appointed to sit on the Bench, believes that she is equipped to hear the matter, having had years of experience, first in the Traffic Court, then the Juvenile or Ninth Court, before moving to the Fourth Court, where more serious offences are heard. Legal sources said yesterday that a magistrate is entitled not to give up a case unless there are compelling grounds to do so.

When Panday first appeared in court on November 19, 2002, the case was heard by Thomas-Felix. By the end of that month, however, Chief Magistrate McNicolls had written to Thomas-Felix, saying he would take the case as was his right since it was a high profile one.  He reminded her of a decision taken where in  cases of "national importance", the chief magistrate would  preside. When and by whom such a decision was taken was not made clear.

The next month, in late January, Thomas-Felix was told she would be transferred, as part of a move to streamline the magistracy. One of the reasons given was that magistrates would be able to work closer to where they lived. But Thomas-Felix, who lives in Flagstaff, Maraval and has two sons who attend Fatima College in Port of Spain, was transferred to San Fernando.

Panday is charged on three counts of making false declarations in 1999 to the Integrity Commission about a London bank account in his and his wife Oma's name. He is being represented by a battery of senior lawyers. The State's case is being prosecuted by English attorney Timothy Cassell, QC. If found guilty, Panday could face a $20,000 fine and/or two years imprisonment. Neither Thomas-Felix, McNicolls nor Sharma could be reached for comment yesterday.