Region Nine Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Parker will be asked to step down until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against him for sexual assault, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan has said.
Parker was charged with sexual assault on Thursday in a city court. “I got the news this afternoon that he was charged today and all I can say is the he will be asked to step aside,” Bulkan said on Thursday.
According to him, there has been no formal meeting between Parker and the ministry since the charge was read to him, but he would be asked step aside to allow due process to take place.
Parker, 53, was read the charge by Magistrate Judy Latchman during an in-camera hearing and released on $200,000 bail.
Parker’s lawyer, Jerome Khan, said his client has been “high-tech lynched” in the press and has been tried, prosecuted and found guilty on Facebook.
Meanwhile Minister of State Joseph Harmon was asked yesterday about the process to be taken by government to replace Parker. Speaking to reporters during a post-Cabinet press briefing, he said that the law says that “a person is innocent until proven guilty. An allegation has been made. A charge has been laid against the REO as a preliminary step to allow for the investigation of the offence to take place and the Minister of Communities has indicated that the REO will not be performing his duties.” He said that there is an assistant REO and people in the system that can “step up” and perform Parker’s duties. “I am sure that that is well within the competency of the Ministry of Communities to deal with that matter but as I said a person is innocent under our law until proven guilty and that we should await the outcome of the court matter,” he added.
