He's a senior attorney - but Lionel Welch was - for a few minutes today - on the other side of the law because the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
The bench warrant was ordered when he failed to appear in the Magistrate's Court for trial on charges of 48 counts of failure to file General Sales Tax returns for the period January 2007 to January 2011.
Welch was arraigned on the charges on July 5 and a date for trial was set for today.
But Welch today told us that he had no idea that the matter was underway - and he was right around the court house this morning. Indeed we saw him there, and when he found out, he explained to the magistrate that he did not know of the court date - and added that before issuing a warrant, they ought to have an affidavit confirming that he knew of the date and deliberately ignored it.
He told us that bench warrant was cancelled at about a quarter to twelve after he conferred with the Magistrate. He says the magistrate apologized and set a new date for trial.
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