While some vendors who had been selling T-shirts and the like at Drake's Seat have moved to Vendors Plaza, attorneys for at least two others have filed documents in District Court asking Judge Thomas K. Moore to reconsider his Jan. 26 ruling that the government can bar vendors from the overlook.
Vendors' attorneys reportedly have also filed a suit against Christine Wheaton, the owner of the Drake's Seat property.
According to a report in The Avis, attorney Kenth Rogers said his clients were denied due process when their location permits were not renewed by the Police Department in 1993.
The vendors apparently never received a hearing on the matter, Rogers said. Instead, they entered into month-to-month memoranda of agreement with the Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation to set up at Drake's Seat.
In his ruling last month, Moore found that Housing, Parks and Recreation had no legal authority to issue the memoranda.
According to the V.I. Code, Moore said at the time, "Housing Parks and Recreation has absolutely nothing to do with the vendors at Drake's Seat. They lost their property interest there when they lost their valid VIPD placement permits."
Without a legitimate property interest, Moore said, the question of whether vendors' rights of due process were violated was moot.
On Jan. 26, Moore gave vendors' attorneys two weeks to file additional documents in support of their case. It was not known when he would hand down a decision.
Attorney Chad Messier, representing the Wheaton estate, said the additional suit by the vendors supposedly alleges "conspiracy" by the widow of Homer Wheaton, Christine Wheaton, who lives in Switzerland. But Messier said Friday that his client had still not been served with the suit.
Meanwhile, five Drake's Seat vendors have accepted a proposal from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs to situate them next to Vendors Plaza, according to DLCA Commissioner Andrew Rutnik. But he said Friday was the last day for vendors to do so.
"These vendors have finally realized that the judge's ruling has stood, and that the government does indeed have the right to remove them from Drake's Seat," Rutnik said.
He said that while original plans for the expansion of Vendors Plaza to accommodate those from Drake's Seat called for 14 vendor spots, "we may amend that plan. But certainly we are going to expand Vendors Plaza."
Vendors have not been setting up at the Drake's Seat overlook recently and Rutnik said, "I do hope they don't try to go up there again. We've been very patient, the police have been very patient. No arrests have been made. But if they keep pushing those buttons, they will be arrested."
