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76 year old Primrose Gabourel and her son, 43 year old Dion Zabaneh were back before the Magistrate today.  

In January of this year, the Department of the Environment and the police enforced a stoppage of land filling at parcel 4670 in Buttonwood Bay.  It’s a lot which happens to be in the sea - and the DOE says they should have first gotten environmental clearance.  

The mother and son were charged for failure to obtain environmental clearance prior to development activity; failure to comply with an enforcement notice, that is, a stop order; hindering or obstructing an officer in the conduct of his duties and proceeding with a project without complying with environmental clearance.

Those charges have been a subject of dispute for months. This morning, their attorney, Emile Arguelles asked the lower court to stop because - he argues - the court is out of its jurisdiction dealing with a property matter.  He says it should be sent to the Supreme Court.  

DOE’s in-house counsel Jeavon Hulse argued that it is an environmental matter and it can be heard at the lower court.

Senior Magistrate, Aretha Ford has deferred her ruling for next month.  If she rules that it can be heard at the lower court, she will proceed directly to trial.