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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesSTILL NO DETAILS ON PAYOUTS TO JUDGES

STILL NO DETAILS ON PAYOUTS TO JUDGES

The audit of former Judge Verne Hodge's request for more than $400,000 in accrued sick and annual leave will not be completed "any time soon," according to Virgin Islands Inspector General Steven Van Beverhoudt.
He said he was consulting with the Solicitor General at the V.I. Justice Department and has requested more information from Finance and from the Territorial Court.
Meanwhile, at the request of St. Thomas Source, court personnel have been working for nearly for two weeks trying to put together information on the lump-sum payments made to other judges who retired under the same law that applies to Hodge.
Presiding Judge Maria Cabret first wanted guidance from legal counsel Leon Kendall as to whether the information should be public. Attorney Glenda Lake, court administrator, said Cabret received the OK on Feb. 4.
Since then, Lake said personnel have been going through old records trying to verify the payments. On Thursday, she said she had copies of the check stubs of installment payments made to retired Judges Eileen Petersen and Raymond Finch, who were based on St. Croix.
However, "I will not release them until I verify they are correct," she said. "I need the actual certificates (of approval from Finance.) Those have long since been sent to archives."
She also still needs records for Henry Feuerzeig, who was based on St. Thomas, and for the late Antoine Joseph and Irwin Silverlight.
Hodge has said the only reason the government is balking at paying his accrued leave is because the sum is so high. The numbers came from the payroll division of Finance, based on the records he had submitted over his 23-year tenure.
The reason he accrued so much leave, he said, was that when he did take time off he applied the days against "comp time," which he believes he was entitled to for overtime work since he was not allowed overtime pay.
Sen. Anne Golden has asked Van Beverhoudt to research the issue not only of Hodge's leave but of accrued-leave payments for government employees in general.

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