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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesGovernor Goes to Washington to Discuss Funding, ATF

Governor Goes to Washington to Discuss Funding, ATF








Gov. John deJongh Jr. left the territory Sunday and headed to Washington, D.C., to meet with national leaders on a number of key local issues — including a proposal to grant peace-officer status to federal officers working in the territory.

The week’s worth of meetings with White House and Congressional officials will focus on funding the territory is getting through the American Recovery and Investment Act. The leaders will also discuss next fiscal year’s federal transportation appropriations and the status of the territory’s relationship with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, now that the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency has been restructured. The meetings will also include discussions on federal taxation and health-care reform, according to a Government House news release.

The governor will also meet with Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, to discuss the status of ATF agents within the territory and recently proposed legislation that would grant them peace-officer status. The governor’s proposal was sent to Sen. Patrick Simeon Sprauve last week, according to Government House spokesman Jean P. Greaux Jr.

"Sen. Sprauve has a similar bill in the Senate, and we’re trying to merge it into one that might be considered this month," Greaux said Sunday. "There is a legal question over whether these federal agents have peace-officer status when they are assigned to the territory, and after discussions with the attorney general and U.S. attorney, it is clear that they need that status."

In an investigative report published last week, the Source reported that ATF, which helps regulate guns and battle violent crime, pulled all four of its agents out of the territory last fall. The ATF’s departure was triggered, according to a letter by U.S. Attorney Paul Murphy, by the resistance its shooting team investigators reportedly encountered from local law enforcement when they arrived to investigate a shooting involving ATF officer William Clark, who had intervened in a domestic-violence situation at Mahogany Run involving a resident and his girlfriend.

The relationship between local and federal agents was further strained by Attorney General Vincent Frazer’s decision to try Clark in local Superior Court, where he couldn’t invoke the Good Samaritan Statute, which allows a federal officer to intervene in threatening situations under the guise of official duty. Federal agents working in the territory also do not have peace-officer status, which would allow them to enforce local statues and gives them a layer of immunity in the event something unexpected happens during a criminal investigation.

Before returning to the territory, deJongh will also present the 2009 Alexander Hamilton Awards to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Majority Whip Rep. James Clayburn (D-SC).

At the end of the week, the governor and Education Commissioner La Verne Terry will head to Philadelphia for a with meeting representatives from the Middle States Association, who will give an update on St. Croix Central High School’s accreditation status.

The governor will return to the territory at the end of the week, according to the news release. In his absence, Lt. Gov. Gregory R. Francis will serve as acting governor.

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