La Romaine man gets $.4 million for wrongful arrest, police beating

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A La Romaine man who was beaten by police officers and locked up for more than three months for crimes he did not commit has been awarded more than $400,000 in damages including interest.

Akil Samuel through his attorney Abdel Mohammed sued the state for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and assault and battery.

According to the court documents, Samuel was at his daughter’s primary school for a Parent Teachers Association Meeting (PTA) on November 5, 2015. He was waiting to speak with the principal when three men in plain clothes, who he later realised were police officers, approached and took him away from the office. They asked him what he was doing there and he explained that he was attending a PTA meeting.

But, a Police Constable handcuffed him in the presence of his six-year-old daughter and other students. His daughter began crying and shouting, “Where are you taking my daddy!”

Samuel said he repeatedly pleaded his innocence, but was ignored by the officers, and was told he was wanted for several robberies in the southern district. In full view of students, parents and teachers, he was placed in a marked police vehicle.

Samuel, in his witness statement, said, “I felt extremely embarrassed as everyone looked and stared at me as if I were a hardened criminal and I felt really bad for my daughter who was six years old at the time as I did not want her fellow students to laugh or avoid her as a result of this.”

His attorney said he was taken to the Point Fortin Police Station and placed in a 10 by 10 cell with urine and faeces on the ground and a hole in the ground for a toilet. There were seven other people in the cell. The officers told him that they would be back to deal with him. Samuel said his request for a phone call to inform his grandmother of his arrest was ignored by the officers. Around midnight or early the next morning, he said he was taken out of the cell, handcuffed to a chair in the charge room and interviewed by two Constables Carter and Bajan.

They cursed him and demanded to know what he did with a vault and the location of someone named Keston. Samuel repeatedly told them that he knew nothing of what they were asking. Without any warning or hesitation, he said the officers slapped him three times on his head with the police station diary.

“The slaps were really hard, and I immediately felt dizzy after being struck with the big station diary and begged the officers to stop hitting me. I was further cuffed multiple times about the upper body by both police officers and the police officers continuously asked me ‘Where you put the people f…… vault,'” he said.

When he refused to sign a written statement that was prepared beforehand, Samuel said the officers slapped him about the face and head. After the 45 minute ordeal, he continued to feel dizzy and his head was paining. But, he said the officers ignored his requests for medical treatment.

He was taken back to the cell where he remained for four days. During his detention, he was not offered a phone call, informed of his right to an attorney or allowed any family visits. He said on November 9, 2015, around 6.30 am Constables Aqui and Patrice threw two charge papers in the cell, called him a thief and said they should have killed him.

Two hours later he appeared before a Point Fortin Magistrate charged with robbing a clothing store of a $6,000 safe and $54,000 cash on April 8, 2015, while the other charge alleged that at Southern Gardens Point Fortin on April 12, 2015, he broke and entered a dwelling house and stole a TV and laptop together worth $14,500.

He was denied bail because the police alleged he had no fixed place of abode and remanded to the Golden Grove Prison. Samuel said he just opened a fruit and car wash business but had no one to manage it so he lost everything.

In total, he made six court occasions. He said on January 22, 2016, the vault charge was dismissed after two witnesses indicated that he was not the perpetrator. Samuel claimed that on February 26, 2016, when he was walking down the staircase from the courtroom after attending court on the other matter PC Aqui pushed him down the steps. Samuel said the officer told him he was wasting the court’s time and should plead guilty, then the officer slapped and cuffed him repeatedly and squeezed the handcuff tighter on his left wrist. Samuel was taken for medical treatment after he complained to the other officers about the beating.

He also made a report at the station.

The other charge against him was dismissed after the homeowner testified that he was not the person who broke into his house. Samuel complained that he was never placed on an identification parade and did not fit the description of the perpetrator in either crime. Samuel said he continues to live in fear of the police and avoids areas in and around Point Fortin because he is afraid the officers will frame or beat him for no reason.

Samuel said he has lost all confidence in the police service and doesn’t wish this ordeal on his worst enemy.

“I continue to feel hurt and depressed by their conduct and I cannot forgive them for their unlawful conduct,” he said.

Complaining there has been no investigation into the illegal conduct of the officers although a report was made against PC Aqui, he called for the officers involved in this matter to be held accountable for their horrible, inhumane and disgusting conduct.

In considering damages, Master Martha Alexander found the public arrest of the claimant on the school compound would have left indelible scars on the minds of the claimant and the witnesses to the incident and would have caused irreparable injuries to his feelings and reputation. Finding that the assault and beating on Samuel were unprovoked and unwarranted and while not debilitating, Alexander said it would have been painful. She awarded $400,000 in exemplary damages to show the court’s distaste for the defendant’s behaviour.