— As Judicial Inquiry Commission Recommends 

IPNEWS: The Judiciary Inquiry Commission (JIC) on December 20 recommended one-year suspension without pay and benefits against Cllr. Kennedy Peabody, Resident Judge of the Civil Law Court for illegal withholding 14.5 lots of the 29 lots of land belonging to one Prince Kanneh, a formeremployee of Bassam Jawhary, aLebanesebusinessman.

The 29 lots of land is situated in Foday Town, on the Robertsfiled Highway and acquired under the name of Momentum Engineering Group Inc.

The JIC’s recommendation against Judge Peabody comes after ten-months of investigation into a complaint filed against him by Prince Kanneh, alleging that he was exercising his judicial power to conduct a re-survey of the 14 5 lots of land with the intend of unlawfully taking the property from them.

This complaint against Judge Peabody was filed, while Peabody was presiding over the Paynesville Magisterial Court as Stipendiary Magistrate during 2011 and 2012.

According to the JIC, Peabody’s entire action is unethical in that as a sitting Magistrate he entertained and presided over case involving his intimate friend and simultaneously engaged in business transactions on behalf of his same friend, Bassam Jawhary, a Lebanese businessman, and executor of the 29 lots of land of the late Milad R Hage Estate.

Before the investigation, the Jawhary had gifted Judge Peabody the remaining 14.5 lots of the land for compensation wwhenever he is presiding over any of the Hage’s cases including the 14.5 lots deeded to him, Prince Kanneh.

The Judicial Canon #11 says “a judge should not accept any present for favor from litigants or from lawyers practicing before him or her or from other whose interests are likely to be submitted to him for judgment.”

The JIC further said Judge Peabody breached the code of ethics when he elected to siege the 14.5 lots of land legally belonging to the Momentum Engineering Group and its owner Prince Kanneh without any legal process.

“The action of Judge Peabody gives credence to Edith Hage’s testimony that he Peabody used his authority from Jawhary’s gift in applying the Milad Hage Estate Funds,” says the JIC “The commission sees and interpret the action of the judge as what the complainant in his lay man term referred to as threat, suppression and oppression of his rights.”

Therefore, the JIC’s recommendation added,” Judge Peabody should be suspended for twelve-month without pay and benefits ”

“And, the ownership of the land should be determined by the court of competent jurisdiction between Prince Kanneh and the Momentum Engineering Group,” the recommendation noted.

The Judiciary Inquiry Commission’s recommendation/decision is subject to approval of the Supreme Court.

If this recommendation is endorsed by the Supreme Court, it means that Judge Kennedy would have to fence on his own.

In his complaint, Prince Kanneh said, his former employer, Bassam Jawhary, then executor of the late Milad R Hage Estate, did acquire real property of 29 lots of land in the name of Momentum Engineering Group

According to him, Jawhary gifted 14.5 lots of the properties to Judge Peabody then stipendiary Magistrate of the Paynesville Magisterial Court as compensation for presiding over a property case between 2011 to 2012 that involved Oumou Sirleaf Hage and Tonny Hage.

As a result of the gift, Kanneh alleges Peabody ruled in favour of Jawhary.

“The reason I was oppressed, suppressed and threatened is as a result of the 14.5 lots of land of the company’s property that my boss Bassam Jawhary entrusted in my care while he was out of the bailiwick of the country,” Kanneh claimed.

He said when Judge Peabody knew that Jawhary would not return to Liberia anytime soon, he ordered the re-survey of the property he received from Jawhary as compensation, including the 14.5 lots under the name Momentum Engineering Group.

“I was shocked to see a judge who is believed to be a custodian of human rights violating his rights by converting the company property to his own,” Kanneh alleges.

According to him, at first he was afraid to institute the complaint against Peabody, but he did so, because every lawyer he contacted refused to take the case on ground that they don’t want to come into conflict with the judge.

“It was Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh who nominated the offices of the Public Defender to give me a lawyer to represent me,” Kanneh claimed.

Another person to testify against Peabody was Edith Hage Smith, who claimed that when she discovered that Jawhary was applying the estate funds, and confronted him about the property in question, Judge Peabody, then called and informed her that the property was for him.

According to her, while she was still in Liberia, she personally visited the properties and interviewed individuals believed to be contractors hired by Jawhary to carry out construction work there

“The property is just one of numerous properties he, Jawhary acquired through dubious means with the aid of Judge Peabody,” Edith alleges.

In his counterargument, Peabody said, since his high schooldays at St. Patrick, and coincidentally he and him met at his church and reconsolidated their bond.

“Jawhary shared my dreams and aspirations to build homes for homeless people in Liberia, and from this background, he donated the 14.5 lots of land to the Momentum Engineering Group,” Peabody said.

According to him, when he learned that Prince Kanneh was selling the land unlawfully, he had already sold roughly two acres of the dispute subject land to a number of individuals who had placed their initials on the site as cornerstone.

It was based on that he asked his grantor for a survey and notified all adjacent proper6 owners to conduct a re-survey of the property.

“That all adjacent property owners received survey notices for the purposes and the survey was carried out with the participation of all interested parties with the exception of the complainant who was aware of the notice but declined to appear,” Peabody alleges.

He contended that Kanneh was never named or appointed as caretaker or attorney by Jawhary through written documents or verbal requests as a purported.

Instead, Jawhary called him Peabody and asked him to take care of all of his personal properties in liberia including Momentum Engineering Group, and all of the subjects dispute, but he did not grant him any legal powers of attorney.

The JIC recommendations was signed by Associate Justice Yamie Quiqui Gneisay, chairman, Judge Roosevelt Willie, member, Judge Serena F. Garlawolu, member, Judge Ousman F. Feika, member, Rt. Rev Father Michael T.Sie, member and Cllr. Kunkunyan Wleh Teh, member.

Former Associate Justice George Henries and Sister Mary Laurene Browne did not sign the findings because they did not participate in the investigations hearing.