PORTMORE, St Catherine – A legal battle is heating up between Portmore Mayor George Lee and his colleague mayor of Spanish Town Andrew Wheatley, who has sued Lee for alleged defamation.

The Spanish Town mayor, who is also a member of Lee’s Portmore Municipal Council, is alleging that in January this year Lee made derogatory statements to the monthly meeting of his council, which defamed his (Wheatley’s) character.

Lee confirmed yesterday that court documents setting out particulars of the claim were served on him last Wednesday, but said no date has yet been set for a hearing.

“All I will say at this point is that I will certainly be contesting the matter. In fact, I have already handed over the documents to my attorneys – Knight, Samuels and Junor – who are dealing with the matter,” Lee told the Observer yesterday.

Lee, at the time, had told his council that illegal guns were being stockpiled in a division of the Portmore Municipality. However, on a subsequent programme on Nationwide radio Lee is alleged to have said that there were illegal guns in the Naggo Head division of the municipality.

Wheatley, a university lecturer, is the councillor for the Naggo Head division, held by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, while Lee, Jamaica’s only directly elected mayor, is a representative of the People’s National Party, which forms the national Government.

Lee’s statement had earned the wrath of residents of Naggo Head, some of whom staged a public demonstration and called on Lee to publicly apologise for his comments. The protesting residents claimed at the time that they had invited the Portmore mayor to their citizens’ association meeting to discuss the issue, but he did not turn up.

Lee said, however, that he had not received any invitation to attend the meeting. But even then, the Portmore mayor said he did not see why he should have dialogue with the residents at the time. “I stand by my comments I made, and I don’t see why the discussion,” he was quoted in a newspaper report. He said, too, that he had met with the police to discuss an increase of crimes in the Naggo Head area.