Emile Henderson Is Chief Legal Counsel Of Mapp Administration

ST. THOMAS-Emile Henderson, the attorney who made a name for himself by taking on the territory’s highest profile case this year, Bryan v. Fawkes, where he argued in various courts that Alicia “Chucky” Hansen should not be allowed on the November 4 General Election ballot because of crimes she committed involving moral turpitude, was named Chief Legal Counsel of the incoming Mapp-Potter administration.

The announcement was made Friday at a televised press conference where Governor-elect Kenneth Mapp announced the 14 chairpersons of his transition team.

“I would like to introduce you to the Chief Legal Counsel at Government House, Attorney Emile A. Henderson, born and raised in St. Croix Virgin Islands, and have been a member of the Virgin Islands Bar for the past 12 years,” Mapp said.

The Governor-elect went on to list Henderson’s academic achievements in history, political science and law, and highlighted the marathon rounds the attorney made in Virgin Islands courts, leading to an ultimate victory in the Supreme Court, when that Court, for a second time, ordered Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes to remove Hansen’s name from the November 4 ballot.

VI Consortium caught up with Attorney Henderson after the press conference to get a sense of the direction he intended to take with his new role as Chief Legal Counsel.

“I am humbled by the opportunity to serve the public,” Henderson began, “after we’ve seen what has happened over these last eight years, you definitely want to go in there and do right by the people of the Virgin Islands, and to work hard–and I’m a hard worker.”

Henderson also expressed his thoughts on the importance of “protecting” the newly elected governor, and by extension, Virgin Islands’ residents.

“It is something that I really will take to heart, because my job is to protect the Governor, and in doing so is protecting the people of the Virgin Islands,” he said. “And so, I’m going to work very hard to do that. And when I have to say ‘no.’ I will say ‘no’, and nothing will come through my office that shouldn’t be coming through my office. I know the law and will advise on the law, and I will make sure that we don’t have a repeat of what has been going on for the last eight years.”

A lawsuit challenging the candidacy of a senator brought Henderson to prominence, so it seemed natural that he would hone in on legislation that would make the elections process better. Henderson, however, went further, saying that “anything that breeds corruption or anything that specifically goes against the public is close to my heart.”

He continued: “And my job, like I said, is to protect the Governor and make sure that he isn’t out there doing things that he shouldn’t be doing, is not allowing legislation to go forth that is not good legislation that will hurt the public. That’s the job of staff counsel and to primarily protect the government.”

And, Henderson vowed to deal with corruption “head on.”

“Anything going on in this community that breeds corruption, that appears to be involved in corruption, I’m going to deal with that head on,” he said.