31st Legislature Subpoenas Randolph Knight To Appear Before Senate

ST. THOMAS — Randolf Knight, Governor Kenneth Mapp’s chief of staff and also chairman of the West Indian Company’s board, was summoned to the Earl B. Ottley Legislative Hall on Thursday to testify under oath at a hearing that sought to gather information about the events leading up to the governor’s $14,500 monthly rental at Estate Nazareth.

But Knight, although on island during the hearing, failed to attend — even after the Senate President made calls to Government House for an explanation — forcing the 31st Legislature to use its subpoena power late yesterday, moments before the Committee of the Whole hearing came to a close.

Senators generally expressed disappointed by Knight’s no-show, freely sharing their thoughts on the matter.

“You all know that I am very, very distressed about the fact that the chief of staff of the governor, who is also the chairman of the board of WICO, is not here. He was probably sitting watching us on TV laughing and saying, ‘these jokers, they can’t do me anything,’ Senator Janet Millin Young said.

Millin Young, who would later make the motion to subpoena Knight, asked the Senate’s counsel about the procedures about summoning him to face the 31st Legislature.

“I’m totally disappointed in the executive branch that Mr. Randy Knight chose not to be here today, and has sent a member of the board [instead],” Sen. Myron Jackson said.

Knight, the Senate contends, can provide indelible information that would shed light on the matter, as the two positions he holds are at the center of the scandal.

Jimez Ashby and Villa Fratelli Cresta

The WICO board, at the behest of Knight, unanimously approved a resolution that saw WICO paying for Mapp’s $14,500 monthly rental at Villa Fratelli Cresta. The Estate Nazareth mansion is owned by one Jimez Ashby, owner of A-9 Trucking and VI Recycling Company, as revealed by The Consortium in February.

Ashby, who will also be summoned to face the Senate on the subpoena date, owns the two companies that list identical telephone numbers, as shown by the screen grabs immediately  below. A screenshot of Mr. Ashby’s LinkedIn profile is also included.

On April 23, 2014, the V.I. Waste Management Authority board approved contracts and amended existing ones. On that date, the board approved a retroactive $138,000 payment to A-9 Trucking for services rendered at the St. Thomas landfill between March 2011 and April 2011; a three-year contract for scrap metal management in the St. Thomas-St. John District by V.I. Recycling, for a cost not to exceed $2,933,366.84; and a retroactive $95,650 payment to V.I. Recycling for services rendered for scrap metal management from March 2012 through May 2012.

The government contracts, however, are not suggestive that Gov. Mapp has colluded with Ashby, as Ashby had been doing business with the V.I. government years before Mapp took office.

At February press conference, as a prelude to explaining the reason behind his decision to rent a home on St. Thomas for an amount, according to Mapp, of $12,500, the governor said, “You can’t rent a home in St. Thomas for $4,000.” Mapp was referring to an article printed in a local newspaper citing his spokesperson, Kimberly Jones, as the source of the information of him renting a home on St. Thomas for $4,000.

Senators voting yes on the motion to subpoena Knight were Jean Forde, Francis, Kenneth Gittens, Clifford Graham, Justin Harrigan, Sr., Jackson, Neville James, Millin Young and Tregenza Roach.

Senator Marvin Blyden, who said initially that he was not voting, changed his vote to a yes after a majority of his colleagues voted in the affirmative. And as for the St. Croix senators, most were absent because of travel arrangements. They included: Kurt Vialet, Nereida “Nellie” Rivera-O’Reilly, Terrence “Positive” Nelson and Sammuel Sanes, along with at-large Sen. Almando “Rocky” Liburd.

Feature Image: Front left: Randolf Knight, Mapp’s chief of staff and chairman of the WICO board.