AG offers no apology over courtroom outburst

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 April 2017, 12:26 by Denis Chabrol

by Gary Eleazar

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, today (March 29, 2017) refused to issue a public apology over an outburst be made in the court this past week, causing Justice Franklin Holder to prematurely leave the bench without adjourning the case he was hearing.

Justice Holder has since written to the Chancellor of the Judiciary over the outburst made by Williams that he would say anything, at anytime and anyplace unhindered.

The Judge who was at the time presiding over a matter involving Carvil Duncan, in his letter to the Judiciary called for apology in court by the Attorney General.
Asked whether he will be making any such apologies, Williams told media operatives present at his Carmichael Street Office today, “I don’t know about apology.”

The Attorney General said has a copy of the letter penned by Justice Holder to the Chancellor and he will be responding in writing.

According to Williams, he is already in receipt of a number of statements on his behalf by witnesses to the incident.

Williams was quick to point out however, “I admire the judge for the declaration that the allegation that I threatened to kill him that was not so.”

Former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall—Duncan’s Defense Attorney—had publicly claimed Williams issued a death threat to Justice Holder which caused him to walk out on court case he was presiding over, without formally adjourning the matter.
The incident generated a heated public debate in tandem with a tit-for-tat between Williams and his predecessor, Nandlall.

Williams today presented media operatives with a missive seeking to again clear the air on the matter and added that he is not “unprepared to work with the learned Judge to resolve what was a fleeting engagement after the business of the day was concluded.”

The Attorney General thanked Justice Holder for “doing the right thing and exposing the iniquity of Nandlall” and posited, “that after nearly three hours of barracking by Nandlall, any reasonable person could fall prey to transferred frustration.”

He opined too that his further querying of the Judge on the matter of the court record and which perhaps “induced certain misapprehensions in the Judge’s Mind in all the circumstances and the Attorney General became the victim of transferred frustration’

Justice Holder in his complaint to the Chancellor said, Williams had said to him in court, “I could say what I want to say and however I want to say it, I have always been like that.”
Holder

According to Justice Holder, “Immediately after hearing these words, I rose from the Bench and went into my Chambers. I did not adjourn the matter, nor did I give any instructions to the parties.”