Speaker charged with assault

(CNS): McKeeva Bush (65), the speaker of the Legislative Assembly and member for West Bay West, has been charged with three counts of common assault and one count of disorderly conduct under the liquor licensing law in connection with a well documented violent incident at a Seven Mile Beach bar in February. Bush was said to have appeared in Summary Court Friday morning before the charges were made public. He was bound over by the court to appear again on Friday, 15 May.

Bush is alleged to have physically assaulted the bar manager at the Coral Beach bar on the night of 21 February. The property is owned by the Dart Group and leased by a group of local business men.

Following an RCIPS investigation and the submission of a file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution for a legal ruling, the police said a decision was made for charges to be laid, which happened this morning.

The charges come the day after members of the Legislative Assembly elected a deputy speaker because of the continued absence of Bush and the subsequent resignation of MLA Bernie Bush as deputy speaker because of the failure of the substantive post holder to resign.

Premier Alden McLaughlin granted the speaker an undefined leave of absence over the incident. But now charges have been laid, it remains to be seen if he will now ask for Bush’s resignation.

While he accepted that he had been involved in an incident at the bar, Bush had claimed that he was not culpable and had passed out. He said his drinking issues were related to mental health problems because of his long-standing failure to deal with the grief he has suffered from the loss of his daughter some eight years ago.