Senator Marvin Blyden appeared in the V.I. Superior Court virtually on Friday, Oct. 1 to face a charge of Exposure in Public Place while Infected with a Contagious Disease By. VI CONSORTIUM
Senator Marvin Blyden is scheduled to be sanctioned by the Senate on Dec. 23, the day lawmakers will vote on the recommended punishment that has already been decided by the Senate Committee on Ethical Conduct.
The action would bring to an end the committee's protracted investigation and action on Mr. Blyden's Covid-19 protocol-flouting scandal. There's still a pending Dept. of Justice case set for April after a judge found probable cause to charge the senator with exposure in public place while infected with a contagious disease.
Senator Milton Potter, who leads the Senate Committee on Ethical Conduct, told the Consortium Sunday evening that the committee has been painstakingly following Senate rules as it conducts the investigation, adding that he understands the media's and public's concerns. "I've been very conscientious about following the rules, and I know that the media is rightfully concerned, rightfully asking for information and the general public is, also," he said.
Mr. Potter explained, "The status of things right now is that we met, the five-member Ethics Committee. We made a recommendation. Once a recommendation is made regarding a discipline, the next step is for us to reduce the recommendation to a resolution and of course our legal counsel is involved in that process."
The freshman senator said legal counsel has prepared a draft resolution which will be finalized today. "Once we receive it we will then officially present the resolution to the Senate president. Once it's officially and formally provided to the Senate president, we have 15 working days to vote on it as a body. Now, the feedback that I got from the Senate president was that the Legislature is going to meet on Dec. 23 for a formal session and that will be on the agenda."
Members of the Committee on Ethical Conduct include Senators Potter, Dwayne M. Degraff, Carla J. Joseph, Kurt Vialet and Kenneth Gittens.
The Consortium reported exclusively on Monday, Sept. 20 that Mr. Blyden had flouted Dept. of Health Covid-19 protocols when he went to an event with scores of people in attendance two days after testing positive for Covid-19. Mr. Blyden said he was first tested at the Legislature on Tues., Sept. 14 and refused to believe he was positive, so he sought another test at the V.I. Dept. of Health, which also returned positive Wednesday, Sept. 15. The senator said he was advised by D.O.H. to quarantine for 10 days. However, instead of following the health department's protocols, Mr. Blyden said he tested at home several times after and those tests came back negative. That prompted the senator to attend a function at Tillet Gardens using a government-owned, Legislature-issued, LEG 5 vehicle on the night of Saturday, Sept. 18.
