_.jpg)
U.S. District Judge Wilma Lewis issued a temporary restraining order Friday morning directing Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen be placed back on the ballot.
In an order and opinion issued Friday morning, Lewis made the temporary injunction effective until Sept. 26 and directs the parties in the suit to tell the court if they want to file additional briefs by the end of the day Friday.
Lewis’ opinion said the defendants and plaintiffs make largely the same points, leaving little dispute.
"Not only did defendants offer no opposition to the entry of a TRO, defendants made essentially the same arguments as plaintiffs and requested the same relief at the TRO hearing," Lewis wrote. She determined the plaintiffs –- Hansen and a group of V.I. voters – had "a likelihood of success on the merits" and had met the four legal conditions for a temporary restraining order.
Lewis endorsed the proposition that a pardon restored Hansen’s eligibility because it restored all her civil rights. But she rejected Hansen’s argument that deJongh’s pardon "not only erased the legal effects of her conviction from the date of the pardon forward, but also reached back in time and served to make Senator Hansen’s May 2014 nomination papers valid."
Later, she explains, "Contrary to plaintiffs’ assertions, the cases cited by plaintiffs in their post-hearing brief do not—for the most part—support their position that pardons have retroactive effect."
"Most of the cited cases stand for the undisputed propositions that a pardon restores to a person the full enjoyment of his or her civil rights that were lost as a result of the conviction … and that the deprivation or suspension of any of these civil rights, after pardon, is punishment, and would nullify the power of the pardon," she wrote.
In late August, the V.I. Supreme Court ruled Hansen’s three convictions for willful failure to file income tax were "moral turpitude," rendering her ineligible to serve. (See Related Links below.) Gov. John deJongh Jr. then pardoned Hansen, saying her candidacy should be judged by the voters.
"I am not questioning the past illegal acts taken by the senator to which she has pled guilty,” deJongh wrote in a statement issued by Government House to announce the pardon. “Nor am I questioning the fact that these crimes have been definitively defined by the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands as crimes of moral turpitude. Those determinations have been made."
However, he said, “I am not comfortable with an outcome that denies the voters of St. Croix an opportunity to decide again for themselves what they have twice before decided during the elections for the 29th and 30th Legislatures. It was publicly known at the time of those elections that the senator had been convicted of these crimes. It was also known that she had completed her sentence and fulfilled the obligations that followed from her conviction and sentencing.”
DeJongh said he was relying in part on the legal advice of Attorney General Vincent Frazer. Frazer issued a legal opinion that day, arguing essentially that Hansen’s convictions cannot be used to her legal disadvantage after the pardon.
St. Croix Board of Elections Chairman Adelbert Bryan brought the initial suit to force Hansen off the ballot. The VI.I. Superior Court ruled in Hansen’s favor, then the V.I. Supreme Court overturned that ruling and ordered her removed from the ballot, citing legal precedent for the notion that willful failure to file tax returns constitutes moral turpitude, rendering her ineligible under the law.
Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes had initially declared Hansen qualified, but after the Supreme Court ordered Hansen removed and deJongh pardoned her, Fawkes declined to put Hansen back on the ballot.
“I stand on my decision that she was qualified before, but now with the court order, it has to be set aside,” Fawkes said after a Sept. 5 Joint Boards of Elections meeting. “And just like I got a court order to take her off, I need a court order to put her back on, so I expect this to go back to court soon. If I get another court order to put her back on the ballot, that’s what I’ll do.”
Two parties – Hansen and a group of Hansen supporters – filed separate suits in U.S. District Court on Sept. 7, asking the court to order the supervisor of Elections to put her back on the ballot.
Lewis heard arguments from both sides Wednesday and directed both sides to file supplemental briefs.
The V.I. government, representing Fawkes, has also filed a motion requesting the Supreme Court to rehear the case. However, with a subsequent pardon and federal court ordering Hansen back on the ballot, the Supreme Court’s decision to rehear or not rehear the case may not be immediately significant to Hansen’s candidacy.
That motion, filed by Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Salisbury, petitions the Supreme Court to rehear and reconsider their ruling. The request seems to indicate concern over the fact that the Supreme Court specifically directed the Superior Court to remove Hansen from the general election ballot. While a pardon may completely exonerate Hansen and make her eligible to run, the government’s filing may suggest a concern as to whether a pardon for the underlying crime would directly overturn the Supreme Court’s order to remove Hansen from the ballot.
Salisbury wrote in the motion that the judgment and mandate of the court to “set aside the nomination papers” of Hansen was “premature” since “the defect was curable by pardon from the governor restoring civil rights."
The government also argued the Supreme Court’s new interpretation of the law, concluding that "willful failure to file" an income tax return amounts to fraud, would make it harder to prosecute that crime because it "imposes on the government the burden to prove evil intent in willful failure to file cases."
And they argue that because this is a new interpretation of the law, Hansen did not have fair notice and amounted to an "ex post facto" law, a law written to criminalize an otherwise legal act after the fact, that is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.
There is no automatic right to a rehearing of a V.I. Supreme Court decision and the court itself decides whether it will or will not entertain such a request
Therefore, as of Friday, Sept. 12, Hansen is back in the race.
Good Grief! I am disgusted beyond words. Only in the Virgin Islands can BS like this be allowed to happen. The Supreme Court decision ordered her removed from the ballot, made it crystal clear that she was ineligible to be allowed to to run for Office. Pardon or no pardon from a Governor who has obviously lost touch with reality and the word of law.
She should never have been allowed to be on any ballot in the first place after her conviction and sentencing and would not have been had our spineless Senators, Governor and Attorney General done their jobs and the correct, moral and ethical thing in the first place back in 2010 instead of treating us to this ongoing dog and pony show.
Her conviction in the case against her she showed that she lacks the integrity, morals and ethical standards that every senator and Government official should be held. She was shown to have “willfully” defrauded the Gov. of the VI, the People of the VI and each and every single one of her constituents.
No wonder the Virgin Islands has a problem with rampant crime. It is well past the time to turn the VI away from the rule of lawlessness and corruption which permeates our society and of which Mrs. Hansen has become the poster child.
We cannot have two sets of rules to govern people, one for the general public and the other for officials that are supposed to SERVE the public.
It sets a very bad precedent when a corrupt and convicted official is allowed to sit in a Legislature where laws are created and be paid handsomely, while collecting benefits and retirement packages.
Where are the Senators that are willing to stand up and remove this woman from office? Her entire tenure is a joke and it’s not a laughing matter.
Gov. DeJongh, Atty. General Vincent Frazer and all present sitting Senators have done a huge disservice to the People of the Virgin islands that this woman has willfully and purposely defrauded. Shame on all of you! “Lawmakers should not be law-breakers!”
This debacle only proves that it is time that the voters in the Virgin Islands insist on term limits for Senators and make it happen.
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.”
— Bertrand de Jouvenel
Justice Hodge must be beside himself, not that he was right or wrong in his ruling, just that Judge Lewis stepped on him. Thanks, Johnny, for the pardon, but she’s probably got enough on John to do him some serious harm.
Now it’s up to the intelligent voters to prevent this piece of work from ever being elected to slop at the taxpayer trough and accomplish nothing yet once again. I’m sure her supporters already have their hands out. Such is politics in the beautiful Virgin Islands. She’ll probably be Governor some day the way the water is circling the porcelain.
You guys post as if everything is just hunkey dorey in the rest of the world. I don’t know of any government on the planet that is doing any better. I also don’t know of many PEOPLE on the planet that are living a perfect life, that don’t break the law in some form or fashion, especially for the fact we live under a bunch of stupid laws to begin with. The funniest part to me about all of this is a lot of the people complaining about Hansen are Republicans who don’t believe in paying taxes in the first place, and hide their money everywhere they can in order not to pay their fair share, so it would seem to me that you guys should be backing Hansen. She is a kindred spirit.
Term limits would definitely solve this problem. But I doubt that these pirates would vote to limit their own terms. It’s up to the voters to decide whether Chucky Hansen stays or goes. We shall see.
Not inclined towards the Republican party just as I am not inclined to look the other way whether it’s Democrat or Republican wrong-doing. Right is right and wrong is wrong. While everything is not hunky dorey in the rest of the world, life here in our islands would be a whole lot better if we were not governed by the corrupt, the cheats, the liars and the thieves pretending to serve the public when they serve only their own selfish agendas, while everyone pretends it’s perfectly all right, keeps their mouths shut and looks the other way and enables it to continue. “Evil flourishes when good men do nothing!”
At least, have the decency to speak out when you see wrong-doing!
Moral turpitude? Man, are you serious? After the work Bush put in, Ray Nagin put in, Nixon put in, Mayor Berry put in, and that Detroit Mayor?? Chucky pales in comparison. She is no queen but aren’t you sick and tired of all these laws and restrictions that take the decisions out of the hands of the people? Auto-pilot is not the way forward.
Dear Governor, contrary to your statement, Hansen did not plead guilty, but was tried in federal court and found guilty by a jury of her peers, and showed little remorse for her crime. By the way, do you have any ink left in the “pardon pen?” I believe some other tax cheats may be in need of your services.
I too think that it should be the voters decision.
You vote for who you want in office and sometimes who you support does not do anything good which affects other voters but you continue to support that senator.
I have been a juror many times and I see people find people guilty without the facts but here is the big one, how many of you out there know that your child, brother, sister, mother or father is guilty of a crime 100% for sure but still come out to support, try to tell the community that they are innocent and hope that they don’t take jail and found innocent but for others, you want to find them guilty.
I say let the people decide.
I don’t vote for Chucky but I say let the public decide.
The governor always take blame but the senators always have the last say on a bill.
It’s only pen and paper to make, adjust or change the law.
Pointing fingers elsewhere is a great excuse to continue the corruption, nepotism, thievery and ridiculous circus that defines Virgin Islands politics. Judge Lewis may have gotten it right. Dejongh didn’t. Hodge may have gotten it wrong. Nonetheless, your argument that “for the fact we live under a bunch of stupid laws to begin with” is pretty bad.