The Presiding Judge at Criminal Court “A,” Judge Roosevelt Willie says the court cannot work with the Assistant Clerk Enoch Brooks surrounding the issuance of a Writ of Subpoena seeking to obtain the indicted Senate Secretary Nanbolor Singbeh’s call logs from the Management of GSM company Lonestar Cell MTN illegally without the approval of the court.
This Court cannot work with the Assistant Clerk of this Court for bringing this court to public ridicule, therefore I will write a formal communication to Supreme Court [Chief Justice] Francis S. Korkpor through the Court Administrator to have him transferred to another court,” Judge Willie says.
The Court has been investigating the Assistant Clerk along with two officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) following a publication in the Heritage newspaper which linked the judge to an unethical conduct for which he strongly condemned and challenged Singbeh to prove his case by providing evidence.
“This Judge is not perfect, but everything I do represents Jesus, therefore I will [not] allow my character to be tinted for your own selfish [aim],” the judge says.
“And now that I have sufficient evidence, I did not allow anyone or order anybody to issues subpoena, this Court hereby calls on Singbeh to do the honorable thing either withdraw his complaint or further his complaint so said Judge can produce his evidence before Chief Justice Korkpor,” Judge Willie continues.
The judge states that the Assistant Clerk of Court has been working with the court for over the period of three years and he knows all of the procedures in obtaining call logs, bank accounts from various banks or Lonestar Cell MTN.But the judge observes that the Assistant Clerk fails to follow the procedures or processes or to even bring the matter to the attention of the Judge, rather choosing to go ahead and issue the subpoena.
Judge Willie indicates that by law, in order for a court to issue such a writ, the Liberia National Police should be informed and sent a written communication to the Montserrado County Attorney’s Office. Thereafter, the judge says, the Montserrado County’s Attorney will also do a petition requesting to (Judge Willie’s) Office about such writ.
Following that he states that the subpoena will be approved before it can be issued. But the judge says it was not in this case with the clerk of court. Following Judge Willie’s ruling, the two officers in person of Arking Kaifa and Raffle Wilson have been fined US$35.00 and US$45.00 each, to be paid before next week Tuesday for failure to follow the processes or procedure in obtaining a subpoena.
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The Judge however says failure on the part of the officers to pay said amount into the judiciary’s account, the court will be left with no alternative but to penalize them. The indicted Senate Secretary Nanbolor Singbeh is currently facing trial at the Criminal Court “C” on Economic Sabotage, among other crimes.
By Ben P. Wesee–Edited by Winston W. Parley
