Lee Rohn Calls On DeJongh To Pardon Hansen

Popular and well-respected St. Croix attorney Lee Rohn, who represented Senator Alicia ‘Chucky’ Hansen in her defense against Adelbert Bryan’s suit to remove her from the General Election ballot citing moral turpitude, has called on Governor John P. deJongh to pardon the veteran senator.

In a recently released statement, Rohn said she was “shocked and dismayed” by the Judges’ decision, and said that the standard of moral turpitude has changed over the years, and what was true in the past cannot be true in the times we’re now living in.

Attorney Lee Rohn

“The standard of moral turpitude has changed over the years, and what was true 60 years ago certainly cannot be true in the year 2014 and I am saddened for the people of the Virgin Islands as a result of this decision — and I hope that everyone who feels like we should be able to elect who we want, call the Governor and request the Governor to immediately tomorrow pardon Chucky Hansen, so that we can still elect who we want,” Rohn said.

Lee Rohn spoke about the arguments she made on Tuesday before the V.I. Supreme Court Justices, stressing that the revised Organic Act explicitly gives the power of determining election and members of the legislature, to the V.I. Legislature — and not the courts. Rohn also argued that not filing taxes is not a crime of moral turpitude.

“The revised Organic Act — our constitution, clearly says that the sole judge of election and members of the legislature is left to the legislature, so that’s the sole person who can judge whether or not someone has committed a crime of moral turpitude,” Rohn said.

“And our second argument is that not filing your taxes is not a crime of moral turpitude. It’s not a fraud, it’s not a felony, there was no evidence that was in the record that she owed taxes. It’s really really unclear to me how you could determine that the mere failure, even if willful, to file taxes, would remove someone to have the rights to run for the legislature, particularly since on two separate occasions, the legislature, which is the sole judge, has ruled she was qualified to be a member of the legislature.”

“If the Governor doesn’t pardon her tomorrow as he should, which would remove the impediment to her running, then yes, we will be petitioning for a greater superiority to the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn this decision,” Lee Rohn concluded.

On Thursday the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ruled against Senator Hansen, ordering the Superior Court to remove her name from the November 4th General Election ballot.