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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Superior Court Hears New Motion To Force Hansen Off Ballot

St. Croix Elections Board Chair Adelbert Bryan’s continued his battle to keep voters from deciding if Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen should be in the Legislature Wednesday, as Superior Court Judge Douglas Brady heard arguments for and against Bryan’s most recent motion to have Hansen removed from the ballot.

Bryan sued earlier this year to force Hansen off the ballot, arguing Hansen’s three convictions for willful failure to file income tax were "moral turpitude," rendering her ineligible to serve. The V.I. Supreme Court ruled her ineligible in late August. Gov. John deJongh Jr. then pardoned Hansen, saying her candidacy should be judged by the voters.

DeJongh also petitioned the V.I. Supreme Court to rehear the case, and that court declined.

Hansen herself and a group of St. Croix voters separately brought suit to have Hansen returned to the ballot. U.S. District Judge Wilma Lewis issued orders directing Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes to put Hansen back on the ballot. (See Related Links below)

Bryan filed a motion to remand the case to V.I. Superior Court and seeking Fawkes be held in contempt of court for not following the Supreme Court’s pre-pardon order, and instead following the federal court’s post-pardon order. Bryan argued, among many other things, that his motions were grounded entirely in local law, without a federal question and so should be heard by local courts. He also moved to have the pre-pardon local court order to have Hansen removed from the ballot enforced.

Bryan’s attorney, Emile Henderson III, argued the Superior Court is required to enforce the Supreme Court’s previous order to take Hansen off the ballot, and said the governor’s pardon did not change that, even though it restored Hansen’s civil rights.

"There has been a big to do over pre-pardon and post pardon. That is a red herring. No one is challenging if she is eligible to run in the future," Henderson said. Instead, they are arguing that Hanse was not eligible at the time she filed her papers so the papers were defective.

Attorneys for Fawkes and Hansen both argued that V.I. law gives candidates three days to file corrected papers. Henderson responded that the law only gives an automatic right to to correct defects in the nominating papers, not eligibility. Hansen was ineligible at the time she filed because of the later Supreme Court decision saying she was ineligible, according to Henderson. The pardon may restore Hansen’s civil rights going forward, but not at the time the papers were filed, Henderson said. Because she was not eligible at the time, the papers are defective. Because the question is not about the papers but about eligibility, there is no right to correct them.

Henderson also argued that Hansen needed to file her case in Superior Court, not District Court, so the District Court order to place her on the ballot is not binding.

Attorney Carol Thomas-Jacobs, representing Fawkes, said "the District Court and the Supreme Court never said there is no right to cure the defect."

"There is nothing in the decision to suggest Sen. Hansen could not cure the defect and the District Court recognized that," Thomas-Jacobs said.

She also said the Superior Court had no authority to overturn or in any way "impede" a District Court order.

Brady gave all the parties until 5 p.m. Wednesday to file additional briefs and said he would rule on the case quickly.

Editor’s note: The story has been edited to give the correct name of the judge. The Source regrets the error.

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