James to continue pressing for immediate reinstatement

Jamaica Police Federation Chairman Corporal Rohan James is determined to have his job reinstated while challenging his interdiction, and has already started the process to appeal Thursday’s order for him to remain off the job.

“The appeal has already been filed and the court has now directed us to file bundles, which we will do tomorrow,” James’ lawyer, Hugh Wildman, told The Gleaner hours after the ruling.

Wildman believes James should have been allowed to continue in his job until the judicial review is heard.

“She (Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell) should have reinstated him immediately until the case is heard, because she increased the salary to 99 per cent, which is almost 100 per cent. We made submissions that his pay should not be touched as they had given him three-quarters of his pay, and she has also decided to stop the disciplinary hearing, which is in our favour, but reinstating him in his job is important,” Wildman said.

James was placed on interdiction last Friday over comments he made at a colleague’s funeral about overtime pay for rank-and-file members, which the federation represents.

Wildman said he will be pushing for his client to be reinstated as the “wrong procedure” was used to place him on interdiction.

The attorney, who is seeking a judicial review of Police Commissioner Antony Anderson’s decision to interdict James, had made a preliminary application in Supreme Court asking for a number of orders, including James’ immediate reinstatement.

But Justice Tie-Powell refused to grant the order.

Instead, she ordered that he be paid 99 per cent of his salary and that his disciplinary hearing be placed on hold, pending the judicial review.

Wildman had also requested that the judge recuse herself from making any case management orders in the application, as there would be a conflict of interest if she dealt with the matter. He made the call as the judge had represented James in a civil case when he was stationed at the Denham Town Police Station in Kingston when she was an attorney at the Attorney General’s Chambers.

But that request was also refused by the judge, who ruled that there was no basis for doing so in law or otherwise.

The legal team of Peter Champagnie, KC, Neco Pagon and Richard Lynch, who is representing Assistant Commissioner of Police Andrew Lewis, had argued that the timing of the application for the judge to recuse herself was belated, and the alleged association was without any specificity and happened more than 20 years ago. Lewis is in charge of administration in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

In his affidavit, James said that his comments at the funeral were made consequent to a July 12 meeting that the deputy commissioner in charge of administration, Richard Stewart, and Lewis had with members of the Central Committee of the Jamaica Police Federation. There, the High Command spoke of a possible cap on the overtime payment to be made to the rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

“That statement by the High Command in the meeting runs contrary to the clear order of the court which made no such cap on overtime payment,” the document stated.

James is further contending that his comments did not go beyond the bounds of propriety and fall squarely within Section 13 (3) (b) of the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and belief.

In a July 26 letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Gleaner, James was cited for remarks made on July 15, and, after a probe, disciplinary action was recommended.

In the meantime, a September 28 date has been set for the hearing, but Wildman said he will be seeking to secure an earlier date.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com