Justice Anthony Carmona, the one-man tribunal appointed by the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) to hear evidence of misconduct against Magistrate Avason Quinlan has sought legal clarification on whether this newspaper's reporting of the bail-fixing incident involving Quinlan constitutes a contempt of court.

Justice Carmona has instructed attorneys appearing for the JLSC (the body responsible for investigating complaints of misconduct against judicial officers) and Quinlan to research a specific point of law to determine whether the Express newspaper's reporting of evidence relating to four disciplinary charges brought against the sitting magistrate interfered with the court's authority.

Attorneys Deborah Thomas-Felix, the JLSC-appointed prosecutor in the matter and newly-appointed president of the Industrial Court, and Gilbert Peterson SC, counsel for Quinlan, are expected to report their findings when the tribunal resumes hearing on Friday at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain. Magistrates Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan and Brian Dabideen are listed to testify at the disciplinary enquiry on Friday, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

And in what appears to be a break from accepted protocol, Quinlan was not only permitted to continue to sit on the bench after four charges of judicial misconduct of a serious nature were brought against her by the JLSC in early 2011, but the Director of Personnel Administration (DPA), Gloria Edwards-Joseph, agreed to her request for the payment of State funds for legal counsel.

In all of the judicial misconduct complaints brought against judicial officers in recent years, all of the officers under scrutiny were either immediately suspended, de-rostered and/or arrested on criminal charges, pending the hearing of complaints made against them. And none received the benefit of State-funded payment of legal fees for counsel.

In the case of former chief justice Sat Sharma, who was arrested on a criminal charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, his request for State-funded payment of legal fees was refused. Magistrate Patrick Jagessar was convicted and jailed for two years on bribery-related charges dating back to 1988; senior magistrate Felix Durity remained under suspension for nearly seven years, from August 1989 to May 1996, following a JLSC-levelled complaint of misconduct in a bail application matter, deputy chief magistrate Herbert Charles was de-rostered following two complaints of judicial mis-

conduct in the late 90s and justice Richard Crane was de-rostered days before the attempted coup in July 1990.

In the Crane matter, the Privy Council would later criticise the secret deliberations of the JLSC, then headed by former chief justice Clinton Bernard, and its decision to suspend justice Crane from sitting on the bench, following complaints about his performance in court. The Privy Council found there was "evidence of an acrimonious relationship" between Bernard and Crane. It later emerged that the decision to suspend Crane was also not unanimous.

And until the January 22 report in the Sunday Express, Quinlan, who is married to Deputy Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, is also the only judicial officer to be charged with misconduct whose hearing has not been reported in the media. She is charged with four counts of judicial misconduct, relating to a June 29, 2009, bail-fixing incident involving two drug accused.

She is accused of tampering with fellow Magistrate Brian Dabideen's remand order and granting bail with a surety in the sum of $10,000 for each of two drug accused, Robert Spencer and Anthony Wilson, in circumstances which brought the administration of justice into disrepute. The statement of charge drawn up by the JLSC accused Quinlan, then sitting in the Port of Spain arms and ammunition Magistrates' Court, of fixing bail for the two men, knowing they had earlier that day been denied bail by Dabideen.

In a July 16, 2009, letter of defence to former chief magistrate Sherman McNicolls, Quinlan denied she did anything wrong but was unable to explain how the two drug accused, whose remand warrants had been signed before 11 a.m. on January 29, 2009, and who were being held in the downstairs holding cell awaiting prison transport to the State Prison on Frederick Street, came to be sitting in her courtroom, POS 4B, after the lunch break.

There was also no explanation for her failure to sign the bail order she said she made later that day. The Quinlan statement noted, in part: "At 1 p.m. I returned to court. Whilst so presiding, I observed two men sitting in court for most of the afternoon. When I got to the end or near the end of the late court list those two men were still sitting in court. Those men were Robert Spencer and Anthony Wilson. They were represented by attorney Godson-Phillips." The men had no legal representation when they appeared earlier that day before Magistrate Dabideen in the drug court, POS 4A.

Quinlan admitted to learning about her colleague's remand in custody order later that same day but countered that: "Since I had already indicated in open court my position with respect to bail, I felt it would have been unfair to revoke the bail. I decided instead to write my order, bail with a surety (BWS) in the sum of $10,000."