Do­mini­can at­tor­ney, Clement Joseph, has been ap­point­ed the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion (DPP) fol­low­ing the re­tire­ment of Ja­maican, An­tho­ny Arm­strong a few years ago, amid crim­i­nal charges for pro­fes­sion­al mis­con­duct brought by the Gen­er­al Le­gal Coun­cil in Ja­maica.

Arm­strong, who had held the po­si­tion of DPP since the ear­ly 2000s, re­tired in De­cem­ber 2022 af­ter the Coun­cil ruled that he had act­ed “con­trary to the laws of Ja­maica when he signed as a wit­ness to a doc­u­ment for some­one who was not phys­i­cal­ly present” in a mat­ter re­lat­ing to the sale of three prop­er­ties.

Arm­strong has since ap­pealed the rul­ing. In 2022, he was charged by the po­lice and re­leased on half a mil­lion dol­lars (One Ja­maica dol­lar=US$0.008 cents) bail with sure­ty.

But in Sep­tem­ber 2024, his at­tor­ney, Hugh Wild­man, said all charges against Arm­strong would soon be dropped.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Sir Stead­roy Ben­jamin, in an­nounc­ing the ap­point­ment of Joseph as the new DPP, said he will as­sume du­ties on May 19.

“He is high­ly qual­i­fied, vast­ly ex­pe­ri­enced with a huge record of suc­cess­es at all lev­els of court pro­ceed­ings,” Sir Stead­roy stat­ed, ex­press­ing sat­is­fac­tion with the ap­point­ment.

Joseph, a for­mer po­lice of­fi­cer, served as the for­mer DPP in the Turks & Caicos Is­lands and be­fore tak­ing on the role in  2017, he worked in the DPP’s of­fice in Do­mini­ca.

The gov­ern­ment had said that the po­si­tion re­quired can­di­dates to pos­sess at least 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence prac­tis­ing in crim­i­nal courts, in­clud­ing the Mag­is­trate’s Court, High Court, and Court of Ap­peal, with a min­i­mum of 10 years at the Se­nior Crown Coun­sel lev­el or equiv­a­lent.

ST. JOHN’S, An­tigua, May 14, CMC -

CMC/ag/ir/2025