NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Office of the Attorney General has settled the lawsuit with Deputy Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander and Assistant Commissioner Leamond Deleveaux brought after the Minnis administration forced them to take vacation leave and later assigned them to minor posts when they returned to work.
Bjorn Ferguson, their lawyer, told Eyewitness News yesterday that the settlement was finalized on June 12th.
He said he could not reveal how much money the AG’s office agreed to give the men, citing a non-disclosure clause.
The settlement news comes as Fernander prepares to take over the reins of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) next week when he is sworn in as the next commissioner.
Ferguson said the AG’s office in the Minnis administration intended to fight the lawsuit, but the posture of the office changed when the Progressive Liberal Party came to power.
“When the administration changed the matter was still pending,” he said.
“I wrote letters to the attorney general and they looked at the file again and the posture changed.
“They came to the table, we discussed, I gave an opinion and they gave an opinion…they agreed.
Deputy Commissioner of Police
“The opinions; they were the same, that it was illegal, they could not transfer them out of the force. And so, we then determined damages.”
He added: “[My clients] obviously wanted to pursue legal remedy for the wrong that was caused to them, so in that sense they were satisfied.
“They were hurt by how they were treated. Those officers gave their entire life from high school to the organization, so to be treated that way at the height of their career was a hard pill for them to swallow.
News of the settlement comes after outgoing Police Commissioner Paul Rolle told Eyewitness News he was prepared to resign after the Minnis administration kept pressuring him to sideline Fernander, Strachan and Assistant Commissioner Leamond Deleveaux.
In 2018, the Minnis administration directed eight senior officers to take vacation leave, claiming this was because they accumulated so much vacation time that substantial sums would have to be paid to them if they reached retirement age without taking their vacation.
Five of the officers did not have enough accumulated vacation to lead them into retirement.
Some of the officers who were allowed to remain on duty had accumulated more weeks of vacation than officers who were directed to take leave, prompting critics to accuse the administration of unevenly applying the policy and using it only to sideline officers they did not prefer.
ACP Ken Strachan filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking a declaration from the Supreme Court that the forced leave he took was not vacation and that his transfer to the Ministry of Social Services on return from leave was unlawful.
According to Ferguson, he is represented by Munroe & Associates. The status of his lawsuit is unclear.
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