Caribbean360: PJ Patterson refers libellous email to lawyers

PJ Patterson refers libellous email to lawyers
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Chris Hoyos on 04/05/2012 09:21:00
 
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday May 04, 2012 – Former Jamaica prime minister PJ
Patterson is seeking legal advice with respect to a libellous email alleged to
have been authored by Professor David Rowe.
“I have referred the matter to my lawyers and await their advice,” Patterson
said in an interview. He withheld further comment pending word from his lawyers.
The former prime minister, himself an eminent lawyer, is not likely to treat the
email lightly, given its global distribution via the Internet.
The email, bearing the name "Paul Azan", also libelled other prominent Jamaican
politicians and businessmen, including former Prime Minister Bruce Golding,
former Finance Minister Audley Shaw, former Information and Telecommunications
Minister Daryl Vaz, former Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Christopher Tufton;
Gordon 'Butch’ Stewart, chairman of the Sandals group, and his son Brian
Jardim.
Tufton told the media that he was very distressed by the email and had received
“many alarming calls about it". He said he has started legal consultations and
would likely take his cue from actions now being pursued.
Vaz is the first of the group to have filed a libel suit against Rowe on April
13 in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County,
Florida, claiming that Rowe, "hiding behind pseudonyms... fabricated and
published a document purported to be an official 'US Law Enforcement Memo to
Turks and Caicos Special Investigation and Prosecutions Team'."
The document made "direct accusations of bribery, money laundering, corruption
and close affiliations with a notorious convicted drug lord", Vaz said in court
papers.
Rowe, a Jamaican-born Florida attorney, has denied being the author of the
document in question and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit as it had failed
"to state a cause of action on which relief may be granted or to establish
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