Opposition parliamentarians yesterday rapped Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe over Monday’s private discussions with the police chief to discuss how the courts handle bail for gang members, suggesting that the judge’s action could undermine the independence of the judiciary.

Justice Wolfe was also criticised for his alleged interventionist bent with regard to subordinates, especially in the magistrates’ court. In fact, Abe Dabdoub, who is also a practicing attorney, saw Wolfe’s meeting with Police Commissioner Francis Forbes as part of a pattern of inappropriate behaviour by the country’s most senior judge.

“It is not the first time that the chief justice has been involved in something like this,” Dabdoub told the House after the Jamaica Labour Party member, Delroy Chuck, had raised the issue on a motion for adjournment.

“There was the case of the resident magistrate from St Mary…,” he said, making reference to a recent case in which the chief justice was reported to have called a young magistrate, apparently about a ruling which she reversed the following day, and made a substitute ruling after an agreement by the parties.

“The appearance of independence is crucial,” said Dabdoub. “When a judge gets a call from the chief justice, it affects the appearance of justice.”

Since he became chief justice in the mid-1990s, Wolfe’s tenure has been wracked by controversy, ranging from quarrels with the Bar over the time for the start of court sittings, to complaints of intimidating lawyers, including one case when he was accused of abusing lawyer/client privilege by demanding to see a lawyer’s notes.

But this time it was the judge’s acquiescence to a request for a meeting, made public before it happened, that has landed Wolfe in trouble rather than, as has been the case in the past, something on his own initiative.

“The meeting may have been entirely innocuous, but that may be beside the point,” one lawyer said last night. “Appearance matters. It goes down to a matter of judgement on the part of the chief justice.”

Critics, especially in the Jamaica Labour Party, are likely to see parallels between Wolfe’s action and that of retired, Grenadian-born head of Canada’s Federal Supreme Court, Julius Isaac, who met with prosecutors who wanted him to prod other judges to move faster on cases involving alleged Nazis whose holocaust victims were dying.

Isaac received a slap on the wrist for the meeting, about which he had not informed defence attorneys, but was absolved of fundamental wrong-doing by an inquiry.

The issue, however, was raised by the JLP as one of the reasons why they opposed his chairing, in 2002, the commission of inquiry into the West Kingston violence of July 2001. Isaac and Dabdoub, as well as other JLP lawyers, often clashed at the inquiry before the JLP finally walked out.

Forbes last Friday told reporters of his proposed meeting with Wolfe to discuss his idea for restrictions to be placed on the movement of known gang members if they were granted bail.

It was part of the police chief’s response to the recent outbreak of gang violence in Spanish Town. Forbes said people on bail were involved.

“I want to meet with the judges to find out if there is anything in our laws that can allow us such conditions (for bail),” Forbes told reporters at a briefing.

After Monday’s meeting with the chief justice, Forbes described the session as “very useful” but declined to go into specifics.

He, however, noted that Wolfe could not on his own accord take on the police’s wishes “because there is a foundation of law for him to proceed”.

But JLP members – whose attempt to raise the issue in the House was challenged by the government side as contrary to the Standing Orders – said Wolfe, by agreeing to the meeting, brought into question the idea of the separation of powers and the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

“I am more than a little concerned that the chief justice met with the commissioner,” the JLP’s Chuck declared. “In fact, it is a great concern of this member and other members.”

Chuck said that while his party was concerned about the level of crime and violence in Jamaica, including crime perpetrated by gangs, “we must do it right in the pursuit of law and order”.

“The commissioner of police should not have gone to the chief justice,” Chuck said. “The proper office (to get advice) is the solicitor-general.”