In a special session called by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, the Legislature Friday unanimously approved a bill to appropriate $2.9 million interest earned on bond proceeds to the Judges Pension Fund and the Governors and Lieutenant Governors Retirement Fund.
The interest, which is from last year's $300 bond issue, will replenish the funds which, the administration discovered, are depleted.
Though the vote was quick and unanimous, the session was anything but, as, one after another, discrepancies were brought to light between the Finance Department and the Government Employees Retirement System.
However, these discrepancies took back seat to the revelation that the judge's and governor and lieutenant governor's pensions had not been paid since April. Then, under questioning by Sen. Lorraine Berry, it was revealed that the recipients had not even been notified.
Testifying were Bernice Turnbull, finance commissioner, Willis C. Todman, GERS acting director, and Alphonse Nibbs, GERS legal counsel.
Turnbull said both funds have a negative balance: The Governors and Lieutenant Governors Fund has a $1,304,374 deficit, and the Judges Pension Fund has an $805,147 deficit. Including payments through fiscal year 2000, the minimum appropriation is $2,417,178, however the administration is asking for $2,920,000, leaving an excess of $502,821. This excess did not sit well with the senators, who expressed concern as to what would be done with it.
In fact very little sat well with the lawmakers as the testifiers bandied back and forth about who was responsible for which fund. Todman stated that GERS no longer functions as a constructive trustee to pay over contributions received from the Finance commissioner.
However, he said, contributions "in contravention of statutory directives," had become commingled with general membership contributions "through error or omission, or by administrative fiat, the statutory directive was never complied with."
Both Todman and Turnbull explained that their agencies were in the process of reconciling accounts. Under questioning from Sens. Berry, Vargrave Richards and Almando "Rocky"Liburd, Turnbull admitted she personally had stopped the retirement payments in April.
Liburd asked, "How could you stop any pension payments? What authority do you have?" Turnbull replied that the Attorney General had said "no certifying officer can issue payments out of a negative balance." The negative balances were discovered in April.
Berry asked Turnbull if the recipients had been notified of the suddenly stopped payments. The payments go by direct deposit to the payees. Turnbull said, "No." Berry said, "Don't you think that would have been the decent thing to do?" Turnbull replied, "Yes, that would have been decent."
Berry asked Turnbull about the 9 percent interest the pensions are supposed to accumulate.
Turnbull said she would look into the suggestion, to which Berry replied, "It's the law – it's not a suggestion." Turnbull said the interest had never been implemented, referring, as she did throughout the session, to her relatively brief tenure. "I have no control over what transpired before."
Berry continued to question Turnbull: "Do you know that with the checks being stopped, health insurance is automatically stopped, as it is deducted from the checks?" "That's true," said Turnbull. "So you see what's happening to us," Berry said in obvious frustration.
Liburd addressed Turnbull, "God forbid, any of them should have gotten sick with no insurance. You showed no compassion at all about not notifying them." He continued, "You bluntly said 'no' to Senator Berry. That's disrespect." "I spoke to many of them," Turnbull said. "But no letter," said Liburd.
Turnbull countered with. "I invite you to run this department, it seems that's what you want to do, and you have your spies." "It's not about spies," Liburd said, "people come to the Legislature complaining about the treatment they get from you." Liburd also asked Turnbull if former Governor Roy L. Schneider's checks had been stopped before April. "I won't discuss that," Turnbull said.
All the senators lamented on more than one occasion throughout the session that "it's unfortunate we have to be here doing this today." "What does it say about us as a community?" they, as one, asked.
Richards said that regardless of party affiliations, "we have a moral, legal and ethical responsibility to those who have served this territory with a high level of responsibility." He said he hoped payment would be immediate after the bill is passed.
Turnbull said, "the documentation is in place. If the bill is passed, the checks will be sent out Thursday." She confirmed, under questioning from Sen. Violet Anne Golden, that the next check would include the missed payments, and bring the accounts up to date.
In an opinion issued on the bill, Post-Auditor Campbell Rone Malone stated that it appeared there has been no recent appropriation to the funds from the Legislature. He said, "however, officials continue over the years to certify and make payments, obviously in flagrant violation of the law, to the tune of a deficit . . . in excess of $2.2 million." "Incredible, " he said, "but . . . business as usual." The funds being tapped for this proposal, however, do exist, Campbell concluded.
Those affected by the pensions are former Govs. Juan Luis, Alexander Farrelly and Roy Schneider; former Lt. Govs. Derek Hodge and Kenneth Mapp; and former Territorial Court Judges Eileen Peterson Henry Feurerzeig and Verne Hodge.
Voting on the measure were Sens. Berry, Richards, Liburd, Donald "Ducks" Cole, Roosevelt David, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, George Goodwin, Norman Jn Baptiste, Allie-Allison Petrus, Gregory Bennerson and David Jones. Sens. Judy Gomez, Adelbert "Bert" Bryan and Alicia "Chucky" Hansen were absent, and Golden was absent for the vote.

Two years after a daylight robbery and murder in a Charlotte Amalie jewelry store, the trial of three men facing federal charges in connection with the case has been postponed and probably will not be rescheduled for at least another month. When it does begin, the defendants might face the death penalty, even though the Virgin Islands does not have capital punishment.
Neither the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office nor attorneys for the defense are willing to discuss the probability that the three could become the first Virgin Islanders in modern times to face a possible death sentence in a trial held in the territory.
Defense Attorney George Hodge said certain complex matters related to the case are now under seal of the court and cannot be discussed in public.
The defendants, Jason Hull, Irvine Hodge and Devon Hodge, have been charged with armed robbery, murder and witness tampering in the robbery of an estimated quarter million dollars worth of jewelry and the shooting death of Emerald Lady store owner Larry Davis. Each of the three charges carries a potential death penalty under federal sentencing guidelines adopted during the last decade.
After the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a series of indictments and superseding indictments in the case, jury selection was set for May 8. At the last minute, however, the trial was postponed.
U.S. Attorney's Office officials said then that a new date would probably be set four or five weeks later. Now Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe says the trial will not be rescheduled until District Court Judge Thomas Moore returns from off-island in late July.
Lawyers and anyone else involved in the case could face judicial sanctions if they discuss the matters under seal. Among the elements of the case that remain in the public purview is a motion by Attorney Hodge to have the dismissed on the grounds that a capital murder case should not be argued in a jurisdiction where there is no death penalty. He also moved for dismissal on the grounds that excessive pretrial publicity has made it impossible for his clients to get a fair trial.
On April 26, U.S. Attorney James Hurd issued a response, saying Hodge's death penalty argument was faulty because it suggested that V.I. law could pre-empt federal law. Hurd also said the defense had failed to prove there had been "an inordinate community saturation with prejudicial and inflammatory media publicity" concerning the case.
A veiled reference to pretrial death penalty arguments appears in a defense motion to allow Hull to be released on bail. Hull has been imprisoned without bail since December 1998, when V.I. authorities succeeded in having him extradited from St. Kitts, where he allegedly fled after the St. Thomas jewelry store robbery and murder.
"It is highly prejudicial to defendant Jason Hull to deny him his rights to both bail and speedy trial for the sole purpose of granting the plaintiff additional time to seek cruel and unusual punishment on a third superseding indictment," Attorney Hodge wrote in his motion. The term "cruel and unusual punishment" is commonly used by opponents of U.S. capital punishment laws.
Mabe noted that there have been other cases tried in the territory that carried a potential death sentence, although it has not been sought. One was for the 1997 murder of a mainland tourist who was fatally shot during a carjacking on St. Croix. Another was the case in 1999 of two Haitian boat captains tried for murder in the deaths of illegal aliens who died as a result of a boat accident as they attempted to land on St. Thomas.
And there may be other cases to come, Mabe said, noting that prosecutors are still sorting out the circumstances of the deaths of two Chinese illegal immigrants on New Year's near St. Croix's Point Udall.
But in cases which have already made their way through the court system in the territory, he said, no prosecutor has requested the death penalty.
"Cases become death penalty cases only if a decision is made by Janet Reno," the Attorney General of the United States, Mabe said, and they go to her only after U.S. Justice Department review.
With the Emerald Lady trial on hold, no V.I. officials are about to discuss their judicial intentions in public. However, a clue may lie in the specifics of the last charging document filed in District Court. For the first time it added the name Devon Hodge to those of Irvine Hodge and Jason Hull as co-defendants in the events of May 8, 1998. The charges they all face are:
Count 1 – violation of the federal Hobbs Act, interference with interstate commerce by armed robbery, which carries a possible death penalty.
Count 2 – first-degree murder using an illegal weapon, which carries a possible death penalty.
Count 3 – the slaying of jeweler Larry Davis to prevent him from testifying against Irvine Hodge in an earlier armed robbery of the Emerald Lady, which carries a possible death penalty.
Hurd is on record as saying he personally opposes capital punishment but would follow the directions of his boss, Attorney General Reno, if she decided the merits of the Emerald Lady case warranted the death sentence upon conviction.
Further indications as to the direction the case will take may emerge when Moore responds to the defense motions and to those already been filed by the prosecution. Mabe said the judge could respond to the motions in a variety of ways, some of which might involve hearings and rulings in open court.

Two years after a daylight robbery and murder in a Charlotte Amalie jewelry store, the trial of three men facing federal charges in connection with the case has been postponed and probably will not be rescheduled for at least another month. When it does begin, the defendants might face the death penalty, even though the Virgin Islands does not have capital punishment.
Neither the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office nor attorneys for the defense are willing to discuss the probability that the three could become the first Virgin Islanders in modern times to face a possible death sentence in a trial held in the territory.
Defense Attorney George Hodge said certain complex matters related to the case are now under seal of the court and cannot be discussed in public.
The defendants, Jason Hull, Irvine Hodge and Devon Hodge, have been charged with armed robbery, murder and witness tampering in the robbery of an estimated quarter million dollars worth of jewelry and the shooting death of Emerald Lady store owner Larry Davis. Each of the three charges carries a potential death penalty under federal sentencing guidelines adopted during the last decade.
After the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a series of indictments and superseding indictments in the case, jury selection was set for May 8. At the last minute, however, the trial was postponed.
U.S. Attorney's Office officials said then that a new date would probably be set four or five weeks later. Now Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe says the trial will not be rescheduled until District Court Judge Thomas Moore returns from off-island in late July.
Lawyers and anyone else involved in the case could face judicial sanctions if they discuss the matters under seal. Among the elements of the case that remain in the public purview is a motion by attorney Hodge to have it dismissed on the grounds that a capital murder case should not be argued in a jurisdiction where there is no death penalty. He also moved for dismissal on the grounds that excessive pretrial publicity has made it impossible for his clients to get a fair trial.
On April 26, U.S. Attorney James Hurd issued a response, saying Hodge's death-penalty argument was faulty because it suggested that V.I. law could pre-empt federal law. Hurd also said the defense had failed to prove there had been "an inordinate community saturation with prejudicial and inflammatory media publicity" about the case.
A veiled reference to pretrial death-penalty arguments appears in a defense motion to allow Hull to be released on bail. Hull has been imprisoned without bail since December 1998, when V.I. authorities had him extradited from St. Kitts, where he allegedly fled after the St. Thomas jewelry store robbery and murder.
"It is highly prejudicial to defendant Jason Hull to deny him his rights to both bail and speedy trial for the sole purpose of granting the plaintiff additional time to seek cruel and unusual punishment on a third superseding indictment," Hodge wrote in his motion. The term "cruel and unusual punishment" is commonly used by opponents of U.S. capital punishment laws.
Mabe noted that other cases have been tried in the territory that carried a potential death sentence, although it has not been sought. One was for the 1997 murder of a mainland tourist who was fatally shot during a carjacking on St. Croix. Another was the 1999 case of two Haitian boat captains tried for murder in the deaths of illegal aliens who died as a result of a boat accident as they attempted to land on St. Thomas.
And there may be other cases to come, Mabe said, noting that prosecutors are still sorting out the circumstances of the deaths of two Chinese illegal immigrants on New Year's near St. Croix's Point Udall.
But in cases that have already made their way through the court system in the territory, he said, no prosecutor has requested the death penalty.
"Cases become death penalty cases only if a decision is made by Janet Reno," the attorney general of the United States, Mabe said, and they go to her only after U.S. Justice Department review.
With the Emerald Lady trial on hold, no V.I. officials are about to discuss their judicial intentions in public. However, a clue may lie in the specifics of the last charging document filed in District Court. For the first time it added the name Devon Hodge to those of Irvine Hodge and Jason Hull as co-defendants in the events of May 8, 1998. The charges they all face are:
Count 1 – violation of the federal Hobbs Act, interference with interstate commerce by armed robbery, which carries a possible death penalty.
Count 2 – first-degree murder using an illegal weapon, which carries a possible death penalty.
Count 3 – the slaying of jeweler Larry Davis to prevent him from testifying against Irvine Hodge in an earlier armed robbery of the Emerald Lady, which carries a possible death penalty.
Hurd is on record as saying he personally opposes capital punishment but would follow the directions of his boss, Attorney General Reno, if she decided the merits of the Emerald Lady case warranted the death sentence upon conviction.
Further indications about the direction the case will take may emerge when Moore responds to the defense motions and to those already been filed by the prosecution. Mabe said the judge could respond to the motions in various ways, some of which might involve hearings and rulings in open court.

As was pointed out in a recent editorial in one of the local newspapers, many persons in the community are concerned about certain requests from well intentioned youth and adults seeking support for their various fundraising purposes.
The editorial writer was so right in recognizing that many of the flaws in their approach to potential donors stem from a lack of understanding of the role of philanthropy in a community and, more importantly, from a lack of information about the whole nature of "development" or fundraising.
Although a recent arrival to this wonderfully generous community, I have spent most of my professional life in development and see the pressing need for improvement in how fundraising is achieved in our community.
To many, fundraising may seem easy. Successful fundraising never is.
Clearly, there is a need for training in development, not only for those seeking donations for school projects or civic organizations but also for those professionals, myself included, whose primary task is fundraising.
Allow me to offer an opportunity that may be of assistance to our community.
As a development officer at the University of the Virgin Islands, I propose the formation of a local chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives (NSFRE), a national organization dedicated to professionalism in fundraising. Working together as a group, members of
a territorial chapter could provide much needed training to local schools and civic groups as they do their own fundraising. Furthermore, we could sponsor workshops and guest speakers for our own professional training as development officers. Working together as a group, members
of a local NSFRE chapter could significantly improve philanthropic activity in our community.
A minimum of 15 members are needed to become an official affiliated chapter. There are already a handful of NSFRE members here in the VI, and San Juan recently organized an officially recognized chapter. The Puerto Rico chapter indicated a willingness to be of assistance to our
endeavor. If nothing else, let us consider some joint training, professional certification, and coordination of fundraising special events. At a minimum, we could pool our meager resources and bring well-qualified development trainers to the VI on an annual basis!
I invite interested persons to call me at UVI at 693-1042 to discuss this exciting possibility. Let us work together for the benefit of all.

Editor's note: Deborah Stevens Hamilton was recently named Director of Annual Giving for the University of the Virgin Islands. During the past 20 years she has served as grant writing/research officer for Young Harris College in Northern Georgia and as a fundraiser in Savannah, Georgia for its United Way, Voluntary Action Center, Neighborhood Housing Service, and Symphony Orchestra.
If you wish to respond via email please send responses to source@viaccess.net.

Dripping with sarcasm, the Smoking Gun, co-founded by longtime Village Voice writer William Bastone, focuses on embarrassing documents such as celebrity arrest reports, strange lawsuits, search warrants in high-profile cases and generallunacy. Here you can find Mike Tyson's psychiatric report, the FBI file on John Steinbeck, customs agents' guidelines for performing cavity searches and a catalog of weapons and military vehicles from a Russian arms dealer.

The St. Croix Environmental Association will be re-broadcasting its Sewage Summit originally held on Monday, June 12 on Radio WRRA 1290 AM on Thursday, June 22 from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Listen in and hear officials from both local and federal government candidly discuss the sewage problems in St. Croix.
This program is sponsored in part by the Chase Manhattan Bank Foundation USVI Neighborhood Grants Program.
For further information, call 773-1989 Contact: Yvonne Petersen, SEA executive director.

The Jr. Lions roared back to defeat the Suns 10-6 Thursday afternoon in St. Thomas Pee Wee League action at the Emile Griffith Ballpark.
The Suns jumped out in front with two runs in the top of the first inning. They scored thanks to a two-run home run by Josiah Bute that tipped off the glove of Jr. Lions’ left fielder Raheam Soldiew. Jr.
Lions right fielder, N’Gozi Prentice made two outstanding defensive plays in the first inning. He robbed the Suns of a big inning by throwing out batters at first base.
However, offensively the Jr. Lions could not score in the first two innings. Although they had three hits in those innings five of their first six outs were strikeouts.
The Suns erupted for four runs in the top of the third inning. Taffia Weekes started the rally with the first of his two hits. He was driven home on a triple by Jah Quan Harley. Then with one out Deja Brown singled him home. The next batter, Akeel Morris, struck out. But the rally was not over as Bute hit his second two-run homerun of the game to put the Suns on top 6-0.
The Jr. Lions bats woke up with one out in the bottom of the third inning. Khalide Cherubin hit a three-run home run in the right-center field alley to start the comeback. The Jr. Lions scored three more times in the inning to tie the game at six.
Cherubin, the Jr. Lions shortstop, also did it with his glove. He took away an extra base hit off the bat of the Suns’ Jamie Maldonado.
The Jr. Lions continued their scoring attack in the bottom of the fourth inning. They added four runs off of six hits to take a 10-6 lead into the fifth and final inning.
The Jr. Lions used defense once again to seal their victory. First baseman Franklin Leonard Jr. snagged a ground ball for an unassisted put-out of the Suns leadoff hitter Shaquille Brown. Weekes then got his second hit of the game, a single up the middle as the Suns tried to come back. The next hitter Dean Adams Jr. hit what looked like another single up the middle. However, Cherubin, gloved it stepped on second and threw a bullet to first that doubled up Adams to end the game and made the crowd cheer with appreciation.
In the St. Thomas PeeWee League nine players field but 12 bat. The batters face a maximum of five pitches, which are thrown by their own coaches.

After being vindicated in court Tuesday, Water and Power Authority board member Dean Plaskett ripped those who accused him and other WAPA directors of, among other things, accepting illegal perks during negotiations on the partial sale of the utility to Southern Energy.
Plaskett, commissioner of Planning and Natural Resources and one of three members of Gov. Charles Turnbull’s Cabinet who sits on the WAPA board, slammed his main accuser, Gail Watson Chiang, two days after most of her charges were dismissed by Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews Jr.
Andrews ruled that Turnbull didn’t break the law by entering into exclusive negotiations with Southern Energy. The judge also dismissed Chiang’s allegations that the governor’s negotiating team, which included WAPA board members Plaskett, Andrew Rutnik, Arthur Downing and Ira Hobson, violated conflict of interest laws by allowing Southern to pay for their first-class airfare and rooms at the Ritz Carlton, among other things.
Plaskett made two trips in conjunction with the proposal to sell 80 percent of WAPA to Southern for $380 million to $400 million. The first was a visit to Southern’s headquarters in Atlanta where board members and Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II met with company executives and the governor of Georgia. The second was a three-day trip to Washington, D.C. where details of the deal were hammered out in 16-hour sessions, Plaskett said.
Still, Chiang and other critics of the negotiating team, including current WAPA board member Claude "Tappy" Malloy, alleged that tickets and hotel rooms paid for by the company constituted conflict of interest.
"I find it to be insulting for them to say I could be bought by first-class tickets and a stay at the Ritz Carlton," Plaskett, an attorney, said.
He added that allegations that Southern paid his way to the Breeder’s Cup horse race were a "blatant lie."
Plaskett noted that the court ruling said the conflict of interest charge would have only applied had the members of the negotiating team been in the position to gain financially from the deal.
Plaskett dismissed further Chiang’s claims that Turnbull had violated the law by negotiating with Southern. He pointed out that the ruling said Chiang’s former boss and Turnbull’s predecessor, Gov. Roy Schneider, was the one who initiated the deal with the company.
"That was done by Schneider," Plaskett said. "If you listen to the naysayers they’d lead you to believe it was Gov. Turnbull who went into negotiations.
"It’s clear people have ulterior motives. They gave their tacit approval before," he said.
As for the allegation Andrews didn’t throw out – that the Public Finance Authority illegally funded the government’s consultants for the deal – Plaskett said that too was initiated by Schneider. The issue will be heard on Aug. 22.
Plaskett, meanwhile, said he and the negotiating team members may take action against some of their board colleagues and WAPA staff for providing private and confidential information to Chiang’s legal team without the consent of the majority of the utility’s directors.
"We’ll take that up at a later date," he said. "People at WAPA will be held to answer."

After being vindicated in court Tuesday, Water and Power Authority board member Dean Plaskett ripped those who accused him and other WAPA directors of, among other things, accepting illegal perks during negotiations on the partial sale of the utility to Southern Energy.
Plaskett, a member of Gov. Charles Turnbull’s Cabinet who sits on the board through his position as commissioner of the Planning and Natural Resources, slammed his main accuser, Gail Watson Chiang, two days after most of her charges were dismissed by Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews Jr.
Andrews ruled that Turnbull didn’t break the law by entering into exclusive negotiations with Southern Energy. The judge also dismissed Chiang’s allegations that the governor’s negotiating team, which included WAPA board members Plaskett, Andrew Rutnik, Arthur Downing and Ira Hobson, violated conflict of interest laws by allowing Southern to pay for their first-class airfare and rooms at the Ritz Carlton, among other things.
Board members made two trips in conjunction with the proposal to sell 80 percent of WAPA to Southern for $380 million to $400 million. The first was a visit to Southern’s headquarters in Atlanta where board members and Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II met with company executives and the governor of Georgia. The second was a three-day trip to Washington, D.C. where details of the deal were hammered out in 16-hour sessions, Plaskett said.
Still, Chiang and other critics of the negotiating team, including current WAPA board member Claude "Tappy" Malloy, alleged that tickets and hotel rooms paid for by the company constituted conflict of interest.
"I find it to be insulting for them to say I could be bought by first-class tickets and a stay at the Ritz Carlton," Plaskett, an attorney, said.
He added that allegations that Southern paid his way to the Breeder’s Cup horse race were a "blatant lie."
Plaskett noted that the court ruling said the conflict of interest charge would have only applied had the members of the negotiating team been in the position to gain financially from the deal.
Plaskett dismissed further Chiang’s claims that Turnbull had violated the law by negotiating with Southern. He pointed out that the ruling said Chiang’s former boss and Turnbull’s predecessor, Gov. Roy Schneider, was the one who initiated the deal with the company.
"That was done by Schneider," Plaskett said. "If you listen to the naysayers they’d lead you to believe it was Gov. Turnbull who went into negotiations.
"It’s clear people have ulterior motives. They gave their tacit approval before," he said.
As for the allegation Andrews didn’t throw out – that the Public Finance Authority illegally funded the government’s consultants for the deal – Plaskett said that too was initiated by Schneider. The issue will be heard on Aug. 22.
Plaskett, meanwhile, said he and the negotiating team members may take action against some of their board colleagues and WAPA staff for providing private and confidential information to Chiang’s legal team without the consent of the majority of the utility’s directors.
"We’ll take that up at a later date," he said. "People at WAPA will be held to answer."

Employers and employees are invited to the Department of Labor's Biannual Safety and Health Conference to be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jyly 6, at the Curriculum Center, St. Croix.