MAGISTRATE Alex Herbert Moore has filed a $50M defamation damage claim from Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali Hack, as a result of a letter captioned: ‘Re: Conduct of Magistrate Alex Moore in the charge of the Police vs Marcus Bisram for the offence of murder, Contrary to Common Law’.
Moore is represented by Attorneys at law, Arudranauth Gossai and Mayo Robertson.
The letter, penned on December 5, 2019, arose after Moore, on December 2, 2019, was the sitting magistrate at the Whim Court. The substantive magistrate, Renita Singh, had been on leave.

In the writ, the claimant noted that the letter was falsely and maliciously written, and summarizes that the DPP, based on a Memorandum outlined by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Stacy Goodings, was of the view that Magistrate Moore has a personal interest in the matter.
By that publication, the defendant meant, and was understood to mean that the claimant was unfit to be a Magistrate, and that he was taking the side of the defence in a murder charge brought by the prosecution against Marcus Bisram.

The document was sent to the Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Ms Yonette Cummings Edwards, and Acting Chief Justice, Roxanne George, and, in his claim, Moore noted that by reason of the matters, he has been greatly injured in his character, credibility and reputation, and has been held up to public ridicule and has suffered mental anguish, distress and depression.

It is suggested that the letter contained malice, as prior to the claimant taking duties in Berbice, the defendant made false statements of, and concerning the claimant, when he was sitting at Sparendaam Court, stating he was dispensing his own brand of justice and doing things that he has no authority to do.
Further, the Commissioner of Police was requested to send all files from the claimant’s court to her.
In addition, the DPP is said to have wrongly accused the claimant of dismissing cases even though the majority of witnesses were present, and also accusing the claimant of abusing his powers by instituting fines instead of imprisonment, and causing him to appear before the Judicial Service Commission on allegations of wrongfully dismissing a case in which a particular lawyer was appearing for the defence.
The forty-two-year-old Senior Magistrate was assigned to the Georgetown, East Demerara, Berbice and Corentyne Magisterial districts and had been admitted to practice in Trinidad and Tobago, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and The British Virgin Islands, where he practiced his profession before becoming a magistrate.