Deputy's expulsion vote delayed by legal advice
A FINAL decision on the fate of the deputy accused of social media trolling could be months away.
Chris Le Tissier has yet to lodge an appeal against the recommendation of the Code of Conduct panel that he should be expelled from the States, although he remains fully committed to his legal challenge.
Deputy Le Tissier confirmed yesterday that he was still pursuing the case and his lawyer was waiting for some documents from the States.
‘My advocate is getting all the information from the parties involved. We have to get all the facts and figures, and the appeal will be lodged in due course, but legal matters can take a while.
‘There is no question that the appeal will be allowed, and I have every confidence we will have some success.’
The Code of Conduct rules were updated last year, and there is no deadline as to when an appeal can be lodged.
A right to appeal is limited to two grounds, either that a finding was based on significant factual inaccuracies, or that there were procedural irregularities that prejudiced a deputy’s right to a fair hearing.
If the appeal gets the go ahead then a panel will be convened of members not involved in the original investigation.
The first panel recommended the toughest penalty – expulsion – but there are four others.
These are removal from a particular office, suspension, formal reprimand or caution.
The case is new territory for the States because of the updated procedures.
For now, the States’ Assembly & Constitution Committee is standing back and waiting for the appeals panel to reach a conclusion.
Deputy Carl Meerveld, the president of Sacc, was keen that the matter was handled promptly.
‘The revised report with the findings will be sent to our committee to be published, so they will have the original Code of Conduct panel’s findings and then the appeal panel’s findings on top of that, to then potentially submit to the States, assuming that the appeal panel does not overturn the decision of the Code of Conduct panel in its entirety.’
‘It’s not something we would hang around on, assuming an appeal is granted. It won’t come back to Sacc until that appeal report is compiled.
Because it was such a matter of such public interest the committee would very likely convene a special meeting to consider it at the earliest opportunity, he said.
