Caesar-Toney still in charge at Registry

The person in charge of the Registry and High Court is still Lekeicha Caesar-Toney, and not members of the police force.{{more}}

Caesar-Toney was at work at the Registry, all day Wednesday, performing her normal duties, SEARCHLIGHT has confirmed.

Rumours of a police take over of the registry surfaced Wednesday morning, following news that the day before, Caesar-Toney was escorted out of the High Court office by a police officer, and that other registry employees were told by police that they would all have to leave the building by 4:15 pm.

Opposition parliamentarian Daniel Cummings, commenting on a story he had read about the situation on the Internet, said the situation frightens him.

“My understanding is that the police force is now in charge of the Registrar’s office and that frightens the pants off of me. That breaks down the whole societal norms. This is a maddening development….

It is frightening. To think that an office, as critical as that of the registrar of this country, is now in the hands of the police force of this country, that is what I read into that article,” Cummings said, as he spoke on Nice Radio on Wednesday.

However Commissioner of Police Michael Charles said he was shocked when he heard that it had been said that the police were in charge of the Registry.

“They know they can pick up the phone and call me about stuff like that. There is no truth in it that the police has taken over the Registry. Police trained to run registry? People in the diaspora, when they hear these things, they run with it,” an annoyed Charles told SEARCHLIGHT in an interview on Wednesday.

Charles explained that on Tuesday, a police officer attached to the Registry department called for “back up” during “a situation” that was taking place at the Registry.

“As a result, they asked for back up. Two additional officers were sent to the Registry,” Charles said.

When asked what was the “situation” at the Registry, Charles said he did not know.

A source however told SEARCHLIGHT that the police were called in to secure the Registry, after some staffers, who were spending their last day on staff at Registry and High Court, became “disruptive.”

This claim has been denied by one of the transferred staffers who said that some of them may have been speaking loudly, but never enough to cause a disruption.

The Registry and High Court has been in the news recently, since the abrupt resignation of former registrar Tamara Gibson Marks on May 21, 2014. Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said Gibson-Marks was asked to resign by Attorney General Judith Jones-Morgan, who has also instituted disbarment procedures against the former registrar. The allegations against Gibson-Marks include the misappropriation of over $300,000 from a trust fund.