Feb. 5, 2009 – V.I. Superior Court Judge Leon Kendall responded in a press release Thursday afternoon to what he termed "false reports in the media" regarding his actions earlier in the week.
Based on information from Attorney General Vincent Frazer, the Source reported Tuesday that Assistant Attorney General Jesse Bethel had been arrested Monday afternoon on a bench warrant issued by Kendall, after he arrived 10 minutes late for court. Kendall set Bethel's bail at $10,000.
Bethel appeared Tuesday before Kendall at a show-cause hearing, at which Kendall excused him from paying the $10,000 bail and deferred making a decision on whether to hold the prosecutor in contempt of court.
Kendall said in the release that Bethel wasn't arrested because he was late for court.
"Rather," the judge said, "he was arrested because of his intentional failure to appear in court as ordered."
Bethel was scheduled to appear in court Monday for a change-of-plea hearing for co-defendants Basheem Ford and Jermaine Paris, accused in the murder of veteran V.I. Police Officer Ariel A. Frett, who was gunned down Feb. 8, 2007, after he intervened in an altercation in the Hospital Ground area. Frett died later that day from multiple gunshot wounds. (See "Accused Cop Killer Ford Charged as Adult.") At this point, the case is continued.
Kendall outlined the matters leading up to Bethel's arrest. The incidents are the same as those Bethel recounted earlier. The interpretations differ between the judge and the attorney.
At a pre-trial conference Friday, the defense attorneys — Steven Hogroian, representing Ford, and Samuel Joseph, representing Paris — claimed Bethel offered them an oral plea of involuntary manslaughter, and he produced a tape recording as proof of the conversation.
Bethel claims he "misspoke." Kendall determined that the plea offer was valid and enforceable and set the matter for defendants' Motion to Enforce a Plea Agreement where the defendants had allegedly accepted the oral offer to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Kendall says Bethel "had indicated that he would not appear as ordered because he disagreed with the Court's ruling, a statement he repeated in a newspaper article on Feb. 4."
Bethel told the Source he was late because he was preparing an appeal to the defendants' motion to accept the plea of involuntary manslaughter, and that he had sent another attorney to so inform the court.
The plea arrangements for Ford and Paris are pending. Tuesday Kendall gave the attorneys until Friday to offer briefs on a Third Circuit Court of Appeals opinion – the V.I. government v. Raymond Scotland and St. Clair Springette – which involved a change of plea by the government. Based on the briefs, Kendall said, he would either bind the government to the oral plea offer or the case would go to trial.
Kendall claims Bethel's late appearance is "yet another in a series of deliberate misrepresentations made to the Court by him with respect to matters before the Court in violation of the ABA (American Bar Association) Model Code of Professional Conduct."
Kendall stresses: "The warrant was not issued because he was 'tardy,' but because of his willful failure to appear." He says the arrest "was consistent with the time-honored judicial practice to vindicate the Court's authority in the face of willful and deliberate violations of its orders by any individual."
The Department of Justice has no comment on the judge's statement, according to spokesperson Sara Lezama. The Source was not able to reach Kendall late Thursday.
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