Nationwide News contacted Commissioner Ellington today and requested his response to information that his US visa has been cancelled.

Given the opportunity to respond, Mr. Ellington sent our correspondence to his lawyer, Howard Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell wrote Nationwide News via e-mail .

The attorney said his client, Owen Ellington is “not at liberty to speak to the issue raised at this time.”

Mitchell did not say when Commissioner Ellington would be at liberty to speak to the issue raised by Nationwide News.

The attorney told our news center – “please be advised that publication of erroneous information would result in immediate litigation.”

We responded to Commissioner Ellington’s lawyer indicating that it’s our intention to report accurately whether his US visa has been revoked.

The opportunity was again extended to Mr. Mitchell and Commissioner Ellington to respond to the information reaching us from a number of government sources that his visa has been canceled.

Commissioner Ellington’s attorney responded just after 4:00 this afternoon. Mr. Mitchell said I maintain that my client is not at liberty to respond to your request.

In the meantime, Nationwide News understands that a signal by the US State Department that it’s prepared to impose sanctions on Jamaica due to allegations of human rights excesses, played a part in Ellington’s shock move to retire as Police Commissioner.

It’s understood that allegations of a squad operating in the Police force that carries out unlawful killings, had been brought to the attention of the US State Department.

Commissioner Ellington was reportedly informed about the intention of the US to deprive Jamaica of aid under what’s referred to as the Leahy Amendment.

The Leahy Amendment is a human rights law that prohibits the US Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign law enforcement units that violate human rights with impunity.

To implement the Leahy Law, US embassies and the human rights arm of US Department of State vet potential recipients of security assistance.

If a unit is found to have been credibly implicated in a serious abuse of human rights, assistance is denied until the host nation’s government takes effective steps to bring the responsible persons within the unit to justice.

Our sources say updated on Monday regarding the likely implications if viagrapill he remained in the job, Commissioner Ellington opted to walk away.

For more in this report, please see the podcast section of this app.