Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen’s challenge of the National Park Service ownership of historic properties in the Christiansted National Historic Site was quietly rebuffed by a federal judge earlier this month.
On June 3, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Finch granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss Hansen’s claim, saying that the senator didn’t have standing in the case.
Hansen has long contended that the downtown historic site, which includes Fort Christiansvaern, the Scale House, the Customs House and the Steeple Building, belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands. Spurring her protests have been unilateral decisions by the National Park Service to replace parking lots with parks.
Last September, the Park Service began work to turn a 12-space downtown lot in into a park. The NPS contended that it was acting within its rights in undertaking the project because the property is part of the Christiansted National Historic Site.
Hansen and her attorney, Amelia Joseph, disagreed and were granted a temporary restraining order by Finch that temporarily halted the project. But a few days after granting the restraining order, Finch reversed his decision and allowed work to continue.
He did, however, give Hansen time to prove her claims and to attempt to have Gov. Charles W. Turnbull join the suit because she, as a private citizen, couldn’t press the claim.
In his decision rejecting the suit, Finch said that, after the preliminary rulings, the court granted Hansen time to add the V.I. government as a plaintiff but she failed to do so. Subsequently, Finch said, Hansen’s request that the court realign the V.I. government from defendant to plaintiff was denied earlier this year by Magistrate Court Judge Jeffrey Resnick, which was later affirmed on appeal.
"Accordingly, and because plaintiffs do not have a right, title or interest in the subject property," Finch said, he granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case.
