In awarding Tunapuna pillow vendor Wayne Clarke $170,000 for malicious prosecution, justice Frank Seepersad said errant police officers should be made to pay for damages they cost the State.
“Errant officers who abuse their authority should be made personally liable for the damages awarded due to their unauthorised and unlawful conduct,” Seepersad said as he chastised the police for the wrongful arrest of Clarke, who spent 13 days in jail before he could access bail on a charge of insulting language in 2012.
Seepersad said the matter had caused extreme disquiet in the mind of the court as it was an example of a gross abuse of office.
He warned that police officers were not a law unto themselves and cannot allow their personal hurt to affect the discharge of their duty. He said there were too many instances where any challenge to an officer’s authority was met with obscene or annoying language and resisting arrest charges.
The court awarded Clarke $140,000 as general damages and $30,000 as exemplary damages, and the State was ordered to pay cost in the matter. The case stemmed from a July 2012 incident when Clarke, 56, of Tunapuna, was accused of selling pillows on the pavement of Tunapuna in July 2012 by WPC Thomas-Hernandez.
He was brought before the Tunapuna Magistrate’s Court where he was charged with, exposing for sale, goods and same that were projected over a footpath, contrary to Section 64(1) (d) of the Summary Offences Act. He was also charged with willfully obstructing the free passageway of the street without lawful authority or excuse, contrary to Section 50 (1) of the Highways Act.
Clarke pleaded guilty to the first offence but denied the second. The sitting magistrates ordered that 22 confiscated pillows be donated to the Cyril Ross Children’s Home. Clarke claimed that some time later, he visited the home to ensure the pillows were delivered but learned that they had only received 11.
On April 24, 2012, he reported to the Tunapuna Police Station that the magistrate’s order was not obeyed and half the pillows were missing.
Six days later, while leaving the Tunapuna Administrative Complex, he claimed that Thomas-Hernandez approached him and in an intimidating and angry tone, said “oh so you calling me a thief, well you under arrest. He was charged with using insulting language to the annoyance of persons contrary to Section 49 of the Summary Courts Act.
When he appeared before a Tunapuna magistrate on June 1, 2012, he was granted $10,000 bail but was remanded in custody for 13 days. On the November 19 trial date, Thomas-Hernandez failed to show, leading the case being dismissed for want of prosecution. In his malicious arrest suit, Clarke claimed that he suffered inconvenience, distress, loss and damage.
The State denied the claims and argued that the magistrate had ordered that the pillows be taken to two homes: The Cyril Ross Children’s Home and St Finbar’s Home. However, Thomas-Hernandez was unable to deliver the pillows to St Finbar’s Home in Diego Martin and instead gave it to the St Margaret’s Children’s Home in Malabar.
The defence also charged that it was Clarke who shouted at Thomas-Hernandez in a loud and aggressive voice that “you is a pillow thief. Allyuh police does thief too much.” The defendant and another officer arrested Clarke and took him the station where he was later charged.
With the court accepting Clarke’s case in its entirety, Seepersad said described the matter as an abuse of office, warning that police officers were not above the law. He said the ethos of the police service has to evolve and the service has to be radically transformed to attract the highest calibre of applicants.
For this to happened, he said the renumeration and conditions of employment have to be revisited and a no tolerance approach be adopted against errant officers.
“The nation depends on the police to implement the law, to protect and to serve. When, as in this case, an officer acts out of malice and abuses the power of the office by instituting a matter without merit, the public's confidence in the administration of justice is severely compromised. If the citizens have no faith and respect in the police then lawlessness will prevail.
“It is a travesty that taxpayers’ money, money which should be spent on infrastructure, health and education, has to be spent on satisfying court judgments when the process of the much needed reform of the police service is being considered,” Seepersad said.