Chief Magistrate: I don’t know of AG’s role in land sale

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls said he was not aware that Attorney General John Jeremie “facilitated” the eventual sale of his parcel of land at the Millennium Park development.

He also denied knowing Jeremie had cleared him of any impropriety in the sale of the land.

He was read a copy of a press statement the AG issued on May 11, 2006, in which Jeremie sought to clear the air on his meetings with Mc Nicolls on the Sharma affair.

But Mc Nicolls said he was not aware of it.

Both men met twice—once in March, 2006, when Mc Nicolls told him of his receipt of a $400,000 cheque from Anthony Maharaj, head of CL Communications, as a downpayment for the sale of a $4 million parcel of land, a day after CL Financial executive chairman Lawrence Duprey gave evidence at Panday’s trial.

Mc Nicolls denied the cheque was a bribe for favouring the former prime minister, adding that he returned the money after he had reservations.

The chief magistrate also met with AG Jeremie on May 1, the same day he also met with Sharma who confronted him about the land transaction and told to write a statement saying the CJ did not influence him in anything.

He said he told Sharma he would do so, but really meant he would not.

Mc Nicolls was also questioned at lenght on his first intention to sell the million-dollar property to Maharaj.

He could not say how a deed for the land, which he said he sent to Maharaj before the March 20, 2006, start of Panday’s trial, was stamped as being certified on June, 2006.

Copies of the deed, which both Maharaj and Mc Nicolls produced to the police, showed a certification date sometime in June, 2006, while both men claimed the deed exchanged hands in March.

He insisted he did not “ fabricate” the land sale with Maharaj as a way to give credibility to the transaction.


Sometimes Im really begininng to wonder if this lying mudder cont lives in Trinidad or is he really the fockin Chief Magistrate.

Ah phone call was made in his presence and he spoke to the AG man. It was reported in one of the dailies.

Or is it that he doesnt read the fockin newspapers?

They fockin lying. How come they claim that the deed was exchange in March but was stamped in fockin June?

C'mon Mc Nicolls stop the fockin lying to facilitate the PNM.