Dorothy's dilemma

Leys contradicts Lightbourne's Manatt claims

SOLICITOR GENERAL Douglas Leys has suggested that Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne misled Parliament when she attempted to defend her role in the Manatt-Dudus affair during a censure motion in the Senate last year.

Leys, under cross-examination from People's National Party (PNP) attorney K.D. Knight, told the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry that aspects of a statement made to the Senate by Lightbourne last July were untrue.

"I have given you the facts, Sir," Leys told Knight, who had asked him about contrary claims made by Lightboune when she addressed the Senate.

Lightbourne had claimed, among other things, that she only became aware of representatives of United States law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips attending a December 2009 meeting at the US State Department, where the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke was discussed, after their presence was raised in the House of Representatives by Opposition Member of Parliament Dr Peter Phillips.

"On the 18th of March (2010), Mr Leys confirmed to me that the US lawyer had attended the meeting ... . He advised that it was his decision that the lawyer sit in the room," Lightbourne said in the Senate on July 2 last year.

She added: "What I did know was that when the solicitor general went to Washington for that meeting in December, he told me that he had met American lawyers and that he was dealing with them in their role as lawyers, never as lobbyists."

However, Leys told the commission yesterday that Lightbourne knew from December 2009 that a representative of Manatt would attend the meeting. He claimed he had telephoned Lightbourne from the residence of Jamaica's ambassador to the US for her permission for Manatt representatives to sit in at the meeting.

Leys also said Lightbourne informed him she needed to consult with and receive the approval of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who was off the island at the time.

Leys said he persuaded Lightbourne to permit him, as she was competent to make such a decision. He said the permission was granted.

Meanwhile, the solicitor general told the commission that he did not recall telling Lightbourne the name of the law firm but said, "I told her that a representative from the firm would be present."

Ambassador Evadney Coye has already given evidence that she objected to the Manatt representative attending the meeting but that Leys told her he had permission from Lightbourne for the lawyer to attend.

The solicitor general also dismissed as false Lightbourne's claims in Parliament on October 2 last year that the extradition request should have, but did not, come to her through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

Asked by Knight if Lightbourne's words accurately described what transpired, Leys responded: "No, Sir, those would not be accurate."

Manatt, which was purportedly hired by the Jamaica Labour Party to lobby the US government on the extradition matter, had representatives in attendance during the meeting with Jamaican authorities at the US State Department.

In addition to Lightbourne, the solicitor general also contradicted Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, the former commissioner of police.

Leys said Lewin was mistaken when he claimed a telephone call was placed to the solicitor general on August 25, 2009, and that Leys told Lewin the documents supporting the extradition request were in order. Leys said he had not received the documents until August 26, 2009.

Leys also said, contrary to the former police commissioner's claim, that he did not tell Lewin that Lightbourne wanted to know "why the undue haste" to have the documents signed.