Appeals court orders $$$ payment to former police officer wrongly arrested and detained in 2014

News

Jada Loutoo

4 hours ago

A police officer who was arrested in 2014 but never charged will receive $350,000 in compensation from the state.

The order was issued by appeal judges Peter Rajkumar, Ronnie Boodoosingh and James Aboud, in which they strongly criticised the long periods of police detention of the suspect.

In their ruling, the judges set aside the orders of Supreme Court Justice Nadia Kangaloo, thus upholding Sadiq Rakeeb Ali’s lawsuit challenging his arrest and four-day detention.

Rajkumar, who delivered the ruling, said Kangaloo had failed to appreciate the evidence and found that there was reasonable and probable cause to arrest him.

He also found that the 96-hour detention was unlawful. Rajkumar identified nine “significant aggravating factors” in connection with Ali’s detention.

He also said that “the trial judge, if she had made any kind of analysis of the evidence, would have had to conclude that there was no reasonable and probable cause for his arrest. In the circumstances, his entire detention was unlawful.”

“The impact that this prolonged unlawful detention in a cell had on the accused as a serving police officer was significant.

“After being released without charge, he was forced to serve with the same officers who knew he had been detained, albeit unnecessarily. The stain this left on his character and reputation was indelible.

“He required medical treatment due to the mental suffering caused by that treatment.”

Ali, who left the police force in 2015, was arrested after being ordered to report to the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) on May 9, 2014.

He was made aware of a report against him alleging that he had removed a package of marijuana from a man’s mailbox in order to protect him.

In interviews, Ali denied the accusations. He was arrested and told he would be put in an identification parade. Ali claimed he was handcuffed and escorted through the San Fernando police station to an identification parade the following day, but it was cut short because the other people in line did not look like him.

Ali was detained that night in a cell with another prisoner. On May 11, he was told the line would be up the next day, so he spent another night in the cell. On May 12, a group identification parade was held at the Gulf City Mall food court in La Romaine. He was not identified, but he spent another night in the cell. He was finally released on Tuesday, May 13, 2014, without charge. Rajkumar said he had no doubt that Ali’s detention and the way he was treated made his continued service in the police force “untenable.”

Criticising the police action, Rajkumar said the lack of supervision by senior officers at the station was “alarming”.

“It should be obvious that the period of reasonable detention necessary to investigate the allegations against the accused was rapidly exceeded by the lack of action, or lack of effective action, in preparing for the identification parade.

“Damages are poor compensation for what the plaintiff, through no fault of his own, had to endure.”

While fixing the quantum of compensation, Rajkumar said that “it must be emphasised that the conduct (of the police) as well as the erroneous belief that even longer periods of detention are permissible, constitute oppressive, arbitrary and/or unconstitutional conduct on the part of the State.”

The judge cited the testimony of the arresting officer who did not find the lengthy detention unusual, as some people had been held in custody for more than ten days in connection with the investigation.

“If there is a belief that indefinite detention for the purpose of investigation or questioning is permissible, despite numerous court decisions to the contrary, this must be changed immediately.

“The detention of a person is prima facie an unlawful act and, in the absence of reasonable and probable cause, constitutes a breach of section 4(a) of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Therefore, the arresting person must justify the arrest and any further detention after the arrest must be justified by the arresting person,” Rajkumar said.

Ali was represented by Nera Narine-Mollick, while Stefan Jaikaran and Kadine Matthew represented the State in the appeal proceedings.