This morning a PUP propaganda blitz came down on UDP Freetown standard bearer Mike Peyrefitte like a tonne of bricks. But the attack on Peyrefitte the politician has everything to do with Peyrefitte the attorney. It’s a story that started more than three years ago when Virginia Foreman fell through a floor at the Police Station and injured her back. She sued the government and her case ended up in the hands of Michael Peyrefitte.
In July of 2004, government accepted liability and agreed to settle the case and pay Foreman $30,000 plus $3,000 cost for the attorneys. Since then Peyrefitte has had the money, he says in a client’s trust account. But Foreman says that for over two years, she has not been able to get the money, despite numerous phone calls and visits to his office. Our reports say she took her complaint to the Attorney Generals office – and that’s when her campaign for full cash recovery went into high gear. The Attorney General is Francis Fonseca – the Freetown incumbent – and the man Peyrefitte would hope to unseat in the next election.
Yesterday, three copiously detailed statements signed by Foreman went out to the Bar Association, the Chief Justice, and the Association for Concerned Belizeans. This morning she was on the Positive Vibes Morning Show, and her story is the Belize Times headline. We’ll hear from her in a minute. But first we go to Mike Peyrefitte. The question to him is simple: why does he still have her money over two years after he collected it from government? But while it’s an easy question, the answer is a little involved – but we got it from him today before he headed for New York.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney at Law
“I received the payment. Upon receiving the payment I called Ms. Foreman on the phone number she gave to me to tell her that I have received the payment. I got no answer, got no response.”
He says he tried to reach her through a friend of hers but he was told that Miss Foreman was in the States so he deposited her money in what called a client’s trusts account – and then some months later, he says he bumped into Foreman on the street.
Michael Peyrefitte,
“I saw Ms. Foreman in the streets of Belize City one day, couple months after that, and I said Ms. Foreman, Ms. Hulse told me that you would not be here for a couple years and I am glad I am seeing you now, I need to give you your money; your money has been approved. She told me, she said, ‘Mr. Peyrefitte hold the money for me for right now, I am busy. I am looking after getting my papers to go live in the United States. Hold it for me.’ I said well the good thing is I have it in a client’s trust account so whenever you want it just let me know. But it is not my money, the quicker you can take it off my hands, the better for me. She came to my office one day and said, ‘Mr. Peyrefitte I want you to leave my money at Belize Bank.’”
Jules Vasquez,
This was how long ago?
Michael Peyrefitte,
“This was about a year and a half ago. I said Ms. Foreman I don’t want to do it like that, you and I will physically go to this bank and I will write you a check, in front of whoever you are opening this new account with, and that person can be a witness that I gave you a check and you deposited that check. She said, ‘Mr. Peyrefitte I don’t have time for that, I am leaving for the States right now.’ So I said well Ms. Foreman when are you coming back. She said she would be coming back like next month or sometime. I said when you come back and you have more time, I am not going anywhere. We come, we go to the bank, and I will give you your check to the bank.”
Since the bank thing never worked out, he says he then got a letter from Foreman, instructing him to give the money to someone at the Legal Research Center. But he says that when he tried that but it didn’t work and he spoke to a Ms. Hulse at that office.
Michael Peyrefitte,
“Ms. Hulse said, ‘Mr. Peyrefitte, I have received no instructions or no information from Ms. Foreman telling me that I am to receive any money for her.’ I said well I can’t leave the money then. I am not leaving it if you are telling me you have not received instructions. So I held the money.”
Again, time passed, and he says he then bumped into Foreman at the court.
Michael Peyrefitte,
“Months passed. Couple weeks ago I saw Ms. Foreman in the Magistrate’s Court in Belize City. I said, ‘Ms. Foreman, I need to speak to speak to you now because I need to clear that account. I am entering politics full time, I am not spending much time in my law office as I used, please come for your money so we can clear off this account so I can put the legal profession behind me for right now.’ Ms. Foreman said to me, ‘Mr. Peyrefitte I am taking care of some business, I am doing some stuff but I will be coming for the money.’”
And that brings us to today where she has made a statement, a complaint to the Chief Justice, also to the Association of Concerned Belizeans and another to the President of the Bar Association. Peyrefitte though is unperturbed. He says it is a straightforward matter.
Michael Peyrefitte,
“I don’t see how it can be made an issue. The paperwork and the banking records that exist would clearly show that there was no wrongdoing on my part. You speak to Ms. Hulse, who is the former Supreme Court librarian, I have been hounding her to find Ms. Foreman so I can pay her her money for months now. it really doesn’t take my temperature any degree higher. I can give her that money today. The money is sitting there and Jules, in the overall picture of things, in the overall scheme of things, I don’t want to be disrespectful or condescending but $30,000 is not a lot of money. We deal with bigger money than that on a daily basis. Why on earth would I not want to give a client of mine the money?”
In the story, Peyrefitte mentions “Ms. Hulse” at the Community Legal Referral Information Research Services. That is Silvia Hulse and she today told us that at no time did Peyrefitte come there to offer to leave any cheque for Ms. Foreman.
