Judge orders compensation for Tobago man held by police

POLICE cannot arbitrarily interfere with a citizen’s right to liberty, a High Court judge has ruled after he awarded $50,000 to a Tobago man who was held by police for 16 hours in 2017 without being told why he was being held.

In delivering a ruling in the Tobago High Court, in favour of Herschel Stewart, Justice Frank Seepersad said whenever an arrest is made, the onus is on the police to justify that arrest.

In his decision, Seepersad said the police had no authority to detain a person of interest, and cannot detain a person for questioning, unless the police officer held the objective view that there was reasonable and probable cause to suspect that the individual had committed an arrestable offence.

He said there must exist reasonable grounds for suspicion and those grounds should lead the police to form the view that the person had committed the offence,

Stewart, of Canaan Feeder Road, claimed when he was arrested in a roadblock by police on October 13, 2017, and taken to the Crown Point Police Station and then to the Scarborough Police Station, he was not told why he was arrested, only that he was “giving trouble” and was told by the officer who arrested him that, “I come to deal with you, you lucky this is not my team, if this was my team you woulda get what we was looking for.”

He was eventually taken back to the Crown Point Police Station where he was released without being charged or told why he was held.

According to the State’s case, Stewart was allegedly arrested by the police on information that he attempted to break into a villa to commit an arrestable offence.

The judge said it could not be said there was either a subjective or objective basis on which the arresting officer could have reasonably held the view that Stewart had attempted to break into to the villa to commit an offence, adding that the arrest was premature and unjustified.

According to the judge, there was an enshrined right to liberty which will be jealously guarded by the court, adding that the police could not run afoul of the Constitution.

He ordered the State to pay Stewart $50,000 in compensation and $14,000 in legal costs.

Stewart was represented by attorneys Arden Williams while the State was represented by attorney Ronnelle Hinds.