NORMA Von Cork’s lawyers yesterday told the local appellate court that they wanted the former judge to continue serving her one-year jail sentence while pursuing her final appeal to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council.

The request was made by R N A Henriques Q C, leader of the team that tried, and failed, to convince the local appellate court to acquit Von Cork of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in the Bernal/Moore drug-smuggling case.

Von Cork’s request will be considered tomorrow, after all the lawyers involved in the case have had a chance to peruse the scathing 82-page judgment which dismissed the arguments advanced on her behalf as insulting, brazen and without merit and fingered her for judicial misconduct of the highest order.

“(Von Cork) was no hapless victim drawn into a web by others… her role in the affair was very significant. (Her) involvement was most shocking…,” said Appeal Court judge, Seymour Panton, who heard the appeal along with Appeal Court President Ian Forte Q C and Justice Ransford Langrin.

If Von Cork’s request is granted, she would have effectively accepted punishment — without admitting guilt — for conspiring with four men to cast doubt on the drug-smuggling convictions of Brian Bernal, son of Jamaica’s former ambassador to Washington, and businessman Christopher Moore.

More important to her, insiders say, she would be spared the emotional trauma of waiting probably another two years for the other shoe to drop, pending the outcome of the appeal to the Privy Council.

“It would be too traumatic to come out of prison only to have to return if the Privy Council dismisses the appeal,” said a member of Von Cork’s legal team yesterday.

Von Cork went to jail two weeks ago after the local appellate court said it was upholding her 2000 conviction by Resident Magistrate Almarie Haynes.

A day later, her lawyers filed notice of their intention to pursue a final appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Jamaica’s highest legal authority, as well as an application for bail, pending the outcome.

The registrar of the local appellate court scheduled both matters to be heard yesterday in conjunction with the promised delivery of the court’s written reasons for dismissing the appeal.

However, when the matter came up, Henriques said he would not be pursuing the bail application and asked the court to make a pronouncement that would facilitate their client serving her sentence while pursuing an appeal.

His request, if granted, would raise several questions:

* what would Von Cork’s status in prison be?

* would the Government be exposed to a claim for compensation in the event that the Privy Council found her not guilty? and

* what would the implications be for other convicts who would like to be similarly treated?