ST. THOMAS — At a press conference organized by Governor Kenneth Mapp and held at Government House here, the territory’s leader announced the nomination of Claude Walker as the latest Acting Attorney General.
Walker became the fourth person in eight months to lead the beleaguered department, one the governor acknowledged remains in a “mess,” and Walker, during a brief speech, promised to work on key issues affecting the territory, including the high rate of violence — whether robbery, assault, gun possession or homicide.
Walker also committed to fight white-collar crime.
Walker, Mapp said, has a legal career that spans over 20 years, beginning when he joined the Department of Justice in the solicitor general’s division in 1994. Walker also worked as an environmental attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., for over eight years.
Mr. Walker later served as a policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Treasure, in the Office of Enforcement in 2007, and later returned to the territory to work as a prosecutor. He then left that position to serve as in-house counsel for Scotia Bank, and later as associate regional counsel for litigation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Walker, who said he was “deeply moved” by the appointment, and that he’s “familiar with the burden and responsibility” of the office, assured that he knows what he’s “getting involved in.”
“It is in all our interest to have a Department of Justice that properly functions [and] carries out its mission,” Walker said. “Everything we do in this system of governance that we have involves the law.”
He added: “The attorney general’s office is said to be the people’s legal advocate in all these matters, so we see the role of the office.”
James Carroll stayed on as counsel to serve with Walker.
Tags: attorney general, claude walker, governor kenneth mapp, james carroll, us virgin islands
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