Prime Minister Gaston Browne has acknowledged receipt of correspondence sent by attorney Charlesworth Tabor on behalf of his client Vere Bird III asking that he apologizes for statements he made on Facebook just a month ago.
Bird’s letter, dated December 4th, 2019, gave Prime Minister Browne seven days to respond with specific actions to include a retraction his social media post.
The prime minister’s response, however, is that there will be no apology forthcoming and to let Vere Bird know that, “he needs psychiatric treatment.”
The Facebook post published concerned an alleged Cabinet decision giving Bird an acre of land for a purchase price of twenty-five thousand dollars.
The letter to the prime minister asserted that, “concocting a deal to sell himself land at a Parliamentary rate… this allegation, you should be aware is scandalous and patently false.”
The attorney further asserted that the prime minister’s statement, “has lowered the perception of my client in the eyes of right-thinking members of this society and exposed him to hatred, odium, ridicule and contempt.”
The letter then requested that Browne, “(1) immediately retract the defamatory statement and remove it from your Facebook page. (2) provide an apology to my client in terms to approved by him. (3) give an assurance and undertaking in writing that you will not repeat the publication of these or similar allegations concerning my client and (4) provide an offer in damages (compensation) to properly compensate my client for the defamatory statement made by you and the injury to my client’s reputation, the distress caused to him and the costs to which he has been put in the matter.”
Bird said that, “By the end of the week, next week, he will receive his lawsuit. I already drafted it. I drafted it myself. I didn’t do it out of emotion… so the lawsuit is already there for him.”
This news of Browne’s unwillingness to apologize and recant his statement will come as no surprise to Bird, as Bird preempted the prime minister’s response: “Of course he’s not going to accept. He’s going to rile up and act all foolish.”
“But he can go and take his statements to court,” Bird added, “and let the judge hear what he has to say.”