Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Thomas Felix took legal action yesterday against Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls, challenging his decision seven months ago to assign her to the San Fernando Magistrate’s Court. She is saying that the Chief Magistrate had no power to transfer her and that his decision was irrational and an abuse of power that  violated her constitutional rights to equality of treatment. She is also asking for damages in her matter which is listed to come up before Justice Mark Mohammed today in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Civil Court. Thomas-Felix, who filed for Judicial Review of Mc Nicolls’ decision yesterday, became the centre of controversy a few months ago when she was assigned to the San Fernando Magistrate’s Court while listed in Port-of-Spain to hear  the case of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday who is on  three charges  under the Integrity In Public Life Act. Her transfer meant that Mc Nicolls would hear the high profile case instead of her. 

Thomas-Felix submitted a medical certificate which stated that she had a back problem and could not undertake the drive to San Fernando every day. She eventually, however, began sitting in the San Fernando Court. In the meantime,  Mc Nicolls has been hearing the Panday case. At the time, a source informed Newsday that in 1980, Cabinet approved a recommendation that the position of DCM had to be based in Port-of-Spain to hear matters of major importance and high profile cases. Accompanying her application which was  filed in the Registry of the Port-of-Spain High Court, was a large bundle of documents and correspondence between herself and McNicolls. In her documents filed by the law firm of Boynes and Co, Thomas-Felix is saying that Mc Nicolls’s decision on January 8, 2003 to assign her to San Fernando was ultra vires the Constitution in that it usurped the exclusive powers of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission to transfer the DCM. Further, she is claiming  that in so far as Mc Nicolls purported to act pursuant to section 15 (1) of the Judicial and Legal Service Act, that section was ultra vires the Constitution and is null and void.
 
Another ground which will be  argued  is that the said decision of MC Nicolls  was taken in violation of the principles of fairness and or natural justice in that she was not given an opportunity to be heard. On the fourth ground, Thomas-Felix is claiming that the decision on January 8, 2003 which did not change on February 12, or in the months June and July was irrational and or in violation of her constitutional right to equality of treatment. Finally, she intends to argue that she was  deprived  of her legitimate expectation that she would be assigned to the Port-of-Spain court and that the decision of Mc Nicolls to send her to San Fernando constituted an abuse of power and or a violation of the principles of fairness and or natural justice. Thomas-Felix is asking  for an order of certiorari, which is to bring the records of her matter before the court, and to quash Mc Nicolls’ decision. Alternatively an order of mandamus (command from a higher court)  directing Mc Nicolls to revoke his decision. 

The body of an unidentified man was discovered at Macoya Road, Tunapuna, in the vicinity of the bus route around 1 am yesterday. A passerby who discovered the body contacted the Tunapuna Police who went to the scene. Reports revealed that the man, who was fully clothed, appeared to have been shot in the left arm and his body dumped in Tunapuna. He appeared to be in his 40s, with a strong build and of African descent. The police found no form of national identification.

A party of officers led by Sgts Daniel and Abraham and others went to the scene along with a District Medical Officer. The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Police investigators said yesterday that the man was killed elsewhere and his body dumped in Tunapuna. Investigators are calling on members of the public to come forward and assist the police in identifying the body.

TWO out of four persons injured during a two-car smash up along the Solomon Hochoy highway yesterday remained warded in critical condition at the San Fernando General Hospital. The critical persons have been identified as Waye Prodaman and Nicholson Charles. The other two victims are Suzette Paranboosingh, who is said to have sustained a broken arm, and Donna Hadai, both of whom were treated and discharged. All four persons, employees of Marketing and Distribution in Trinicity, were travelling in the same vehicle. Up to late yesterday, the driver of the other vehicle was being questioned by officers at the Couva police station. According to police reports, around 1.50 pm, the four employees, travelling in a Datsun car, were proceeding north along the Solomon Hochoy Highway.

On reaching the vicinity of the Preysal Flyover, a man driving a Nissan pick-up in the same direction lost control of his vehicle and collided with the car. The four employees were rushed to the Couva Hospital and transferred to San Fernando General Hospital. The driver of the pick-up was treated and subsequently discharged from Couva Hospital. Couva police are continuing investigations.

Acting Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs met with members of his executive yesterday and announced new changes for the Police Service. Among the changes announced are the removal of some of the E-999 units from Central and Northern divisions to the Police Barracks and Traffic Branch. The changes will affect E-999 in Central, St Joseph, Tunapuna and Arima. The existing E-999 units will be left in Eastern, Southern and South Western divisions based on the crime rate in each division. Newsday learned that the move is part of the plan to ensure a heightened visible presence of the police in high crime areas such as Laventille and Morvant. The decision to move the E-999 units forms part of an anti-crime plan which Acting Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs will be introducing shortly as a pilot project. Port-of-Spain is the division with the highest crime rate in terms of murders, kidnappings and serious crime. The E-999 units will work alongside the existing joint police/army patrols based at VMCOTT to ensure that any reports of crime are responded to as quickly as possible.

Officers based at Highway patrols in Central, and Northern divisions throughout the country will also be moved to Traffic Branch and the St James Barracks. Senior officers told Newsday that the idea is to win back some of the confidence from members of the public in terms of police response to crime and the visibility in high crime areas. Newsday learned that the problem of mobility for the service was made known to the Acting Police Commissioner and he assured that every attempt will be made to ensure that the situation is dealt with. In almost all police divisions, officers have been seriously hampered by a problem with transport. Most of the existing vehicles are not working effectively and in some instances officers use their own vehicles to respond to reports of crime.

A 38-year-old prisoner serving two years hard labour for larceny escaped from the Golden Grove Prison at 10.55 am yesterday. Rahamut Mohammed, of Knolly Street, Princes Town is considered armed and dangerous. He bears scars on the forehead, right cheek, left temple, nose, right elbow and right upper arm. He is the father of one and a former labourer. His next of kin is Saffiran Mohammed. Mohammed has a long mustache and beard.

MONROVIA, Liberia: A thundering barrage of mortars shook Liberia’s capital yesterday, hitting two US Embassy compounds and residential neighbourhoods, and killing more than 90 people, as government and rebel forces fought over President Charles Taylor’s last stronghold. Wailing with grief, Liberians lined up bloodied, mangled bodies outside the US Embassy, demanding to know why Washington has not sent troops to end more than a decade of strife in the country founded by freed American slaves. With more than 360 people injured, it appeared to be the bloodiest single day of fighting in three rebel attempts to take Monrovia in the past two months.  Helicopters swept into the embassy yesterday, bringing in a Marine contingent to protect the facility and evacuating some foreigners. In Washington, officials announced that some 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation. “We’re concerned about our people,” US President George W Bush told a press conference in Crawford, Texas. But he indicated he had not yet decided the size of a US force that might be sent to help a promised West African peacekeeping mission in Liberia. “We continue to monitor the situation very closely,” Bush said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Washington and West African states once again to commit troops. “I think we can really salvage the situation if troops were to be deployed urgently and promptly,” he said. During more than two hours of sustained mortar fire, a shell slammed into a US Embassy residential compound where some 10,000 terrified Liberians had taken refuge, killing 25 people, aid workers said. Many more were wounded in the strike, including two Liberian embassy guards. Across the street, in the sprawling embassy complex overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, a shell hit the commissary building. There were no reports of injuries there. After the blasts, enraged Liberians dragged bodies from the residential compound and lined them up in front of the embassy, next to a wall emblazoned with the American seal. “We’re dying here,” screamed some in the crowd, as two American servicemen in camouflage watched from behind bulletproof glass. One man held up a hastily scrawled sign: “Today G Bush kill(ed) Liberia people.” Down the hill from the Embassy, a small boy lay face-down in the grass — victim of another blast just yards away. Neighbourhood residents used a mat to carry away a man bleeding from the leg.

In a densely populated residential neighbourhood, a shell hit a house, killing 18 people in one strike, emergency workers at the scene said. At least 47 Liberians were killed in other strikes yesterday, said officials at Monrovia’s main John F Kennedy hospital and aid groups. At the hospital, patients screaming with pain lay on mattresses on the floor. More than 200 injured people arrived at the hospital in pick-up trucks, police cars and wheelbarrows. About 50 others were being treated at an International Committee of the Red Cross trauma centre and 112 at two clinics set up by French medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

Retired Ag Police Commissioner  Richardson Henry died at his St Augustine home on Sunday from prostate cancer. He died around 1.05 am. Henry joined the Police Service in 1965 as an Assistant Superintendent of police and was the last civilian to join the service in the rank of an officer. He then moved up to the rank of Deputy Commissioner and acted as Commissioner several times. He was also a qualified lawyer. Henry was at one time Transport Commissioner and was known for his major contributions in the upliftment of the Police Service. He was also President of the Lawn Tennis Association. Newsday learned that Assistant Police Commissioner Winston Cooper has been placed in charge of liasing with relatives of the late officer for the police to make a contribution to the service. The eulogy will be read by a senior officer.