Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez did the honorable thing when he offered his resignation to Prime Minister Perry Christie, Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis said yesterday.
"I'm not surprised," said Minnis when contacted for comment. I made the statement that several Cabinet ministers offered their resignations. I stand by those statements."
Minnis made the claim last week. But Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts said in response that Minnis should "seek medical attention".
Gomez told National Review that he was still awaiting word from Christie as to whether he intends to transfer him to another ministry, after he refused to accept his resignation.
"Damian did the honorable thing. He is throwing the ball in Christie's court," Minnis said. "But we basically have a government that is in free fall. We have a prime minister who won't accept resignations."
Minnis said he also suspects that Gomez and two other Cabinet ministers, who reportedly offered their resignations, are unhappy with the "management by the government".
"If I were prime minister, I would not be in this stew that he is in," Minnis said.
Gomez offered his resignation after the files of a group of men he represented as a defense lawyer could not be located. The matter goes back more than 10 years. Two of the men -- Austin Knowles and Nathaniel Knowles -- are wanted in the United States to face drug charges. The men are Gomez's former clients and are now his constituents.
Gomez said this caused him some concern.
"In 2012, I was elected and made a Cabinet minister, and at that point I came out of private practice, so the matter was called up before Justice Stephen Isaacs and at that hearing, I am told by lawyers who attended, that he made note of the fact that the file was still not available to the Supreme Court," Gomez told National Review.
"As a result of that comment being brought to my attention, I apprehended that there was a danger to the reputation of the Office of the Attorney General, which has overall political responsibility for the security of files in the magistrates court.
"And given my earlier involvement in the matter, I thought it prudent to offer to the prime minister my resignation, so as to create the sort of space that would lead to comfort in the public domain that I was not doing something I was not doing.
"That conversation was held on Friday (April 24). He (Christie) indicated that he was not minded to accept my resignation, given that he was comfortable that I had nothing to do with the files not being available and that's where it ended, but for the publication [of the matter] in the Freeport News and the article [last] Monday."
A National Review source claimed that U.S. Charge d'Affaires Lisa Johnson met recently with Chief Justice Hartman Longley to express the United States' concerns over the fact that there have been no conclusions to these extradition cases many years after the requests were made. Following that meeting, the Knowles matter was recently brought up before Isaacs.
Justice Jeanne Thompson (now retired) ordered more than a decade ago that the file in the Knowles matter be transferred from the Magistrates Court to the Supreme Court. A similar order was later made by then Magistrate Carolita Bethel. Gomez said he understands these orders were never followed.
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