May 20, 2009 — The revocation of bail for Kendall Petersen creates a potential difficulty for the Fifth Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention, which is nearing the deadline by which it is supposed to have completed its business.
Petersen is facing charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute stemming from a raid on his Frederiksted home last August. He was released on $10,000 bail last September.
Monday U.S. Magistrate Judge George W. Cannon, Jr. granted a prosecution motion to revoke Petersen's bail, citing evidence that Petersen had failed five of six drug tests. Refraining from using illegal drugs was part of the terms of his pre-trial release. Cannon ordered Petersen to be taken into the custody of the Attorney General for confinement in a corrections facility pending his trial. Jury selection for the trial is scheduled for July 6.
Petersen is an active member of the Constitutional Convention, which last week was unable to achieve the required two-thirds majority to approve the draft language for the document. The convention faces a May 31 deadline for completing its work or going out of business.
There are 30 members of the panel. For their proposed document to pass they need 20 votes, a two-thirds majority. A quorum requires 16 votes. At their meeting last week they were unable to scratch together more than 14 votes for the document. One of those "yes" votes was Petersens'. (See "An Unconventional Meeting for Constitutional Convention,"and " Convention Fails to Pass Proposed Constitution.")
The panel has scheduled another plenary session, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the New Drive Inn, Estate Grove Place, on St. Croix.
Assuming that Petersen is still in custody at that time, the convention will find its work one-vote harder to achieve.
"It will certainly affect us," said Gerard "Luz" James II, chairman of the Fifth Constitutional Convention. "Kendall has been very supportive. He attended basically all the sessions and committee meetings. He was one of the ones who voted for the first draft language, one of the 14."
Without Petersen, proponents will have to find another seven votes instead of another six, and last week's plenary session indicated the group is badly split.
Act 6688, the law which created the Constitutional Convention, has a section on vacancies on the panel. Section 1 subsection I, says, "If at any time during the proceedings of the Convention any delegate dies, resigns, relocates out of the Territory or otherwise becomes disqualified or is unable to serve, the vacancy shall be automatically filled by the unelected candidate that received the next highest number of votes."
But according to James and John Abramson, supervisor of elections for the Virgin Islands Elections System, this does not constitute being "unable to serve."
"There is no vacancy as of today," Abramson said. "Mr. Petersen has not been convicted of a crime. He is incarcerated, but that does not mean he is unable to serve. This puts him at a physical disadvantage of not being able to be present."
Abramson also noted that the convention is likely to ask the V.I. Senate for an extension through August. If it is granted, and if Petersen's trial ends in his being released, then he would still be able to serve.
Abramson likened the situation to a hypothetical delegate who broke a leg and couldn't attend for six months.
"This is temporary. He's not unable to serve. He's temporarily unable to serve."
Abramson also asked which case would better serve the public interest, holding Petersen's seat for him while his legal issues are resolved, or replacing him with someone who has not been part of the process, hasn't gone through the educational part of the convention and would have to be brought up to speed on the lengthy document in a matter of days, with virtually no time left to serve unless the Senate extends the deadline.
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