Cross to pay $750K court fine today
Published:Tuesday | August 10, 2021 | 12:09 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Controversial People’s National Party (PNP) activists Karen Cross and Natalee Stack both have until today to pay their fines of $750,000 after their attorney-at-law, Robert Collie, failed in his last-ditch bid to secure a stay of execution yesterday.
The lawyer also tried to get the fines reduced, but was unsuccessful.
The women, who have both been slapped with a defamation lawsuit by the party’s general secretary, Dr Dayton Campbell, were on July 22 ordered by Justice Chester Stamp to pay the fine within 14 days or serve six months in prison after they were found guilty of contempt of court.
The charges arose after they breached a court order, which prohibits them from posting defamatory information about Campbell on social media.
The political activists both found themselves in legal woes after they reportedly made posts on social media alleging serious criminal conduct by Campbell.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Collie shared that the application that went before Justice Georgiana Fraser in the Supreme Court was not only for a stay of execution but was also to have the fines reduce and to have the injunction order set aside.
“... It was refused at the Court of Appeal and so we tried to get a second bite of the cherry at the Supreme Court level and the judge refused it today,” he said.
“The judge ruled that because she is a judge of concurrent jurisdiction with Justice Stamp, she cannot overturn those orders and she also said that she cannot set aside the injunction set by her sister, Justice Natalie Hart-Hines, so we will have to pursue it in the Court of Appeal,” he added.
Collie further explained that he had filed the appeal against the injunction in the Court of Appeal on August 5, the same date that the court had refused the application for the stay of application.
GoFundMe account
In the meantime, the attorney said he is aware that Cross will be making her payment tomorrow.
As it relates Stack, who is an American citizen, he has not received full instruction from her regarding payment of the fine, but she told him that she did not have that money right now.
“Instruction I got from her today was that she did not have that kind of money and that she has a child and other things to take care of that nature, but the court was not willing to hear the matter of reducing anything,” Collie relayed.
Following the imposition of the fines, a GoFundMe account was set up on behalf of Cross to help with the payment with a target of US$6,000 (approximately J$926,000). It managed to raise US$2,250 (approximately J$347,000).
In the last update posted on August 9, Cross thanked the contributors and supporters for their help and support.