Senior Justice Bernard Turner to hear arguments from Murrio Ducille on Monday…Is someone JUDGE SHOPPING?
NASSAU| The attorney representing embattled FNM MP Adrian Gibson said he doesn’t want Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson to preside over his corruption trial.
Murrio Ducille, KC, made the objection after Gibson, his cousin, Rashae Gibson, former Water and Sewerage Corporation General Manager Elwood Donaldson Jr, Jerome Missick, Joann Knowles and Peaches Farquharson were arraigned in the Supreme Court on corruption charges.
Gibson was previously represented by fellow FNM member and former cabinet minister Elsworth Johnson, who did not find out he had been kicked to the curb by the Long Island MP until this morning.
Johnson, who represented Gibson during his arraignment and service of VBI, showed up in court this morning. It wasn’t until Ducille presented the judge with the names of the MP’s lawyers that Johnson discovered that he had been unceremoniously dumped by his friend and would no longer be representing Gibson.
The FNM MP faces charges over the award of WSC contracts while he served as its executive chairman.
Prosecutors say that Gibson had access to the bank accounts of the companies that were given contracts. He allegedly used the money to buy cars, vacant land and homes worth millions of dollars.
Senior Justice Bernard Turner will hear arguments from Ducille in private on Monday regarding why he wants another judge to hear the case.
In the meantime, the defendants remain on bail.
