by Rashad Rolle (Eyewitness News) NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Senator Michela Barnett Ellis wants the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to investigate claims that Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt brought a lawyer to tears with personal attacks in a courtroom.
Eyewitness News reported that Ferguson-Pratt allegedly called Christina Galanos a coward and made a crude remark about Galanos’ sick mother after the lawyer complained about the late start to her court.
Galanos filed a complaint about the incident with Chief Justice Brian Moree, QC, who helped facilitate an agreement where the top magistrate would transfer Galanos’ cases to other judges.
After Ferguson-Pratt allegedly reneged on that agreement in a case earlier this year, Galanos’ client successfully pushed the Supreme Court to transfer his case to another judge.
Barnett-Ellis said: “When I read the article and what was described to have happened in the article I was honestly disappointed because obviously, we hold persons in leadership to higher standards. We’re all human and we have good days and bad days but no person should ever talk to another person like that.
“Those comments were cruel so I think it requires an investigation from the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to see whether that did in fact happen and if it did happen there needs to be another step because that kind of behavior is not excusable, it’s not appropriate.
