The Hypoglycemia Defence in Anguilla

Someone asked me recently what I knew of the incident many years ago when Eric Reid knocked out Hubert Hughes in the Anguilla House of Assembly.  I was well aware of the incident.  This is what I told him.  It is quite a long story, so bear with me.

In 1981, I was representing Atlin Harrigan, the most senior electrician on the island at the time.  He came to me for professional assistance.  He had wired the buildings at the Merrywing Hotel for a recently arrived British investor, John Batson.  Batson was refusing to pay his bill for the electrical work.  He had no reason not to pay, he simply was not paying it.  It was quite a lot of money by the values of that time, about US$30,000.00 as I recall.  So, I started proceedings by writing the usual “lawyer’s letter” demanding payment in seven days, or else.

There was no response.  No letter of repudiation of the claim came back.  Nothing.  So, we started the next stage, issuing of a writ.  I paid the Bailiff to serve it on him.

A few days later, my sole secretary, Marionette Morton, called me to reception.  “Mr Mitchell, please come outside, there appears to be a problem.”  So, I exited my little chambers, and went out into the main office.  There I saw a very agitated John Batson waving the writ form at me.  He was yelling, “Did you send this to me?  Do you know who I am?  What is the meaning of this?”  I replied, very reasonably, I thought, “Mr Batson, go and see your lawyer.  I will deal with your lawyer.  I cannot deal with you.”

I then turned around and headed back to my office.  The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of reception facing the wrong way, and with my knuckles hurting like hell.  I turned to Marionette, who was sitting back in her chair with her mouth open and her eyes even wider open.  I asked her, “Marionette, did something just happen?”

She replied, “Mr Mitchell, you don’t know what you just did?  You punched the man in his face.  When he fell to the floor, you threw him out into the road.”  I was so horrified, I ran to the glass panes in the front door and looked out, fully expecting to see a dead John Batson with truck tire marks running over his prone body.  But there was nothing.  I opened the door and looked around.  Nothing.  He had disappeared, straight to the police station, I imagined.

I went back in and asked Marionette what had happened.  She explained everything.  She said, “When you turned your back on the man, he yelled at you, ‘Listen to me, you arsehole’.  You turned back to him with your face in a rage and hit him in his face.  When he fell down, you pulled him to the door, opened it, and threw him out.”  It must have been the adrenalin.  He weighed twice as much as I did, so it took super-human effort.  I went back to my office, sat down and trembled for the next two days waiting for the police to arrive to question us prior to bringing charges against me.  Nothing happened.  I did not know what I would tell the police.  I had absolutely no recollection of anything after I turned away from Batson and headed back to my office, until I came to myself and spoke to Marionette about why my fist was hurting so much.

Well, after a couple of days, Batson’s lawyer, Billy Herbert, sent over a cheque for the US$30,000.00.  And, that was the end of it.  Atlin used to laugh after that and say that I had discovered a new debt collection technique.

A couple of years later, I was at an International Tax Planning Association workshop in Monte Carlo.  The theme of the workshop was, “How does a busy professional protect himself/herself from the pressures and demands of clients.”  There were several sessions including professional insurance, the need for exercise, and the like.

One of the sessions was conducted by a nutritionist.  He explained to us about hypoglycemia.  I learned that if you don’t have a good breakfast then the slightest thing can set you off, and you lose your temper.  The first meal of the day is not called “break-fast” for nothing.  Your blood sugar level is at its lowest when you wake up, not having eaten for several hours.  You need to have a proper meal to bring your blood sugar to the right level.  Without it, you can’t absorb any sudden injection of adrenalin.  It could be a slamming door or a telephone ringing loudly that sets you off.  If your blood sugar level is unbalanced, a surge of adrenalin into the blood stream might set off the fight or flight instinct, and you react with excessive anger. 

This was the way one hundred thousand years ago we were able effortlessly to climb to the top of the tree in the jungle when we came around a corner and found ourselves face to face with a saber toothed tiger.  Now, it is not tigers, but a slamming door or a ringing phone that sets us off.  Or, apparently, in my case, a red-faced Englishman calling me an arsehole.

After that workshop I equipped my office with a toaster, a fridge, and a coffee maker.  When I got into the office each day between 3:30 and 4:00 am, the first thing I did was make myself breakfast.  Sometimes it was a New York businesswoman’s power breakfast.  Sometimes it was baked beans on toast.  These were some of the meals recommended by the nutritionist.  My blood sugar level seems to have been fine after that.  I never hit anyone in my office again.  And, I was now ready to take on my first hypoglycemic attack case.

Oh, and I built the concrete staircase with the wooden railings that gave access to the office at the Babrow building.  It is still there, opposite Gee Wee’s Restaurant.  You will notice that the stairs are at right angles to the door.  That was specially designed so that if I ever threw another person out of the office, the railing would prevent him from landing in the road in front of passing traffic.

A couple of years later, I had reason to put my learning about hypoglycemia to good use for the first time.  It had to do with the Minister of Education, the Hon Eric Reid, knocking out the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Hubert Hughes, in the precincts of the House of Assembly.

At a meeting of the House of Assembly in the old House of Assembly building (presently the Statistics Department), Hubert turned his attention to Eric Reid, the Honourable Minister of Education.  Eric was also the manager of a transport company owned by Osborne and himself, Island Transport (or its predecessor).  He delivered truckloads of water to householders whose cisterns had run dry.

Hubert spent the entire morning addressing the Speaker (and the nation, as the sitting was broadcast live over Radio Anguilla) about the dishonesty of the Minister of Education, who he alleged, filled his water trucks from the public water supply pump in The Valley and by stealing water from unoccupied buildings, and then selling the water to needy householders.  The Speaker of the House who permitted this ad hominem attack was, by this time, none other than the previously mentioned electrician, the now Honourable Atlin Harrigan.

At the end of the session, Eric was walking out of the House.  Hubert was immediately behind him.  It seems that Hubert repeatedly jabbed his finger into the back of Eric’s ribs, saying, “Boy, I got you there.  I could see you were feeling it.”  Eric explained to me that he simply blacked out.  He saw red.  The next thing he knew, he was turned around 180 degrees facing the Speaker’s desk.  Hubert was lying unconscious at his feet, and his right fist was hurting like hell.  He had no idea what had happened until Chief Minister Emile Gumbs stepped over Hubert’s prostrate body and explained it to him.

Just a few months previously, Lyn Bell had asked me to represent him in the police case brought against him when he jumped a French professional tennis player and beat his face in on a car door, nearly cutting off his ear in the process.  The event was the opening of a lady barrister’s law chambers in the location it presently exists.  Lyn was attracted to the lawyer, but she at that time was more interested in the much younger French tennis coach at Malliouhana Hotel.  Lyn explained that he had been on a diet for weeks, trying in vain to regain his 18-year-old physique, when he saw the lady chatting to the Frenchman at the reception.  He lost all control and jumped the man.  He had no recollection of the incident.  Apparently, from what he was told, a wine glass held in his right hand which he used to repeatedly beat the head of the Frenchman against a car door broke, and accidentally nearly cut off the ear.

All the guests were witnesses.  These included the Governor, Ministers of Government, the Bishop who had just blessed the new office, all members of the Bar Association, and the great and good of the island.  There was no chance of us pleading mistaken identity.

Lyn was charged with several serious assault offences.  I suggested that he obtain a medical opinion on the likely effect of his fasting on his mental state when he was struck by this sight of the object of his affection chatting to his competition.  The medical report he obtained from doctors in Canada was to the effect that the patient had suffered a hypoglycemic attack over which he had no control.  He had not eaten properly for some days. 

We pleaded guilty to a relatively minor charge of common assault, and I presented to the court the medical report in mitigation.  Lyn was given a very mild sentence.  He was placed on a six months’ bond to be of good behaviour and to keep the peace.  Lyn was subsequently sued for damages in the High Court, and he accepted liability for an amount of damages in the area I told him the court was bound to give in any event.

Anyway, Eric was charged with a variety of offences.  They included the offence of “an assault within the precincts of the House of Assembly.”  This charge incurred a mandatory penalty of exclusion from the House of Assembly for a period of one year.  This was a serious situation for a legislator and a Minister of Government to find himself in.  He could not afford to miss meetings of the House for an entire year.  He would have to resign as a Minister.  He was also charged with offences of common assault.  After discussion with Eric, we offered to plead guilty to the lesser offence of common assault.

Because of my experience with John Batson and with Lyn’s case, I had a good idea what had happened to Eric.  However, Eric did not have the means to acquire the expensive medical report that Lyn had obtained.  But he managed to get a local one.  This explained that he was a diabetic.  His blood sugar level was affected.  He was subject, when placed under extreme stress, to a hypoglycemic attack which would induce the flight or fight syndrome over which he had absolutely no control.  Any violence he exhibited would have been entirely outside of his control.

Despite his lack of control, we could not plead “not guilty because of the hypoglycemic attack”.  That is essentially a plea of temporary insanity.  Politically, insanity, temporary or otherwise, would have been unacceptable.  So, we offered to plead guilty to common assault.  The attorney-general, Richard Whitehead, accepted the plea deal.

I had only two authorities upon which to base my argument that Eric was entitled to a light sentence.  One was suggested to me by my cousin, David Carty, Eric’s political adviser.  It was the Biblical story of Jesus seizing a strap and whipping the money changers from the Temple.  The other was the speech of Iago in which he declaims, “Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis nothing … but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”

I argued in mitigation that if Jesus himself could lose his temper, then so much an ordinary man.  There was such a thing as legitimate anger.  And, that, just as with Iago, the theft by Hubert of Eric’s good name was the greatest offence that could be imagined.  It was not surprising that, with his medical condition, he just lost it and struck out.  He should be excused.

Magistrate Roop Sharma put Eric on the same bond, to keep the peace for six months and be of good behaviour.  Eric later asked me what that meant.  I explained that he was prohibited for a period of six months from cuffing Hubert again.  He had no problem after that attending the House of Assembly.  And, Hubert never gave him reason to strike him again.  Indeed, years later, when Hubert was Chief Minister, I have known Eric to be in Hubert’s office sitting at his side assisting with the interviewing of prospective investors in the island.  There were no permanent hard feelings on either side.