Florida-based United Kingdom government employee Larry Covington is fighting an attempt by Cayman Islands politician McKeeva Bush to compel his evidence for a ‘malicious prosecution' lawsuit that Bush is pursuing in Cayman against that jurisdiction's former Governor, former Police Commissioner and current Attorney General.
Covington filed a motion to intervene and oppose Bush's pending application for judicial assistance at federal court in Miami on March 27th.
“Mr. Covington requests an opportunity to be heard by the Court as to the reasons why this Application by Mr. Bush should be denied,” it was stated in Covington's motion.
As a “consular employee” of the U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office since January, 2007, Covington claimed he was entitled, under the “U.S.-U.K. Consular Convention”, “to refuse a request from the courts or authorities” concerning “the scope of his official duties”.
Covington accused Bush of failing “to utilize available procedures before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands” regarding “extra-territorial discovery” and failing “to establish that Mr. Covington played any role whatsoever in the factual maters at issue in the pending litigation”.
Bush applied to the Miami court on January 18th for permission to serve a subpoena on Covington compelling the production of documents and his testimony by way of deposition for a lawsuit that Bush filed against Cayman's former Police Commissioner David Baines, former Governor Duncan Taylor, and The Attorney General at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in 2015, alleging conspiracy, malicious prosecution and other causes of action.
“The gist of the Cayman Action is that Mr. Baines, Mr. Taylor and others conspired for Mr. Bush to be arrested in the Cayman Islands and charged with the ‘crime' of using his government issued credit card for personal expenditures,” it was stated in Bush's application in Miami. “The prosecution of Mr Bush was malicious and/or brought for an improper purpose, which was to remove Mr Bush from his office as Premier of the Cayman Islands in 2012 and rendered him unable to retain his office in the 2013 elections. Evidence submitted to courts in the Cayman Islands and the United States for the purpose of obtaining search orders and evidence under mutual legal assistance provisions falsely stated that Mr Bush had breached Cayman Islands government policy by using his credit card for personal reasons. Mr. Bush was ultimately exonerated by a jury following a full trial on all of the charges and filed suit against Mr. Baines, Mr. Taylor and others in the Cayman Action to recover damages from the alleged conspirators.
“Evidence introduced in the Cayman Action demonstrates that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was involved in bringing the false criminal charges brought against Mr. Bush.”
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
