Gary appears in court

COMMISSIONER of Police Gary Griffith yesterday made a personal appearance at the hearing of a contempt-of-court application filed against him by eight policemen seeking promotion.

The eight officers filed contempt proceedings against the commissioner last month for failing to comply with a judge’s order to retroactively promote them to sergeant, although the commissioner, on Friday, filed separate proceedings seeking to have the judge’s order set aside.

The applications of both the policemen and Griffith came up for hearing before Justice Joan Charles, who ordered in March that the eight should be promoted retroactively, with back pay and fringe benefits.

At yesterday’s hearing, Charles asked the commissioner’s legal team if, the application he had filed meant the matter could not be settled.

She pointed out that the matter had a long history in the court, which was punctuated by the non-appearance of the commissioner on several occasions, giving him an opportunity to state his position before the court’s order was given in March.

“I really want to get straight to the point…What is the position of the defendant?” she asked. She was told her orders in March were in direct contravention of the guidance given by the Court of Appeal on the issue of promotions, and the commissioner was seeking to have her reconsider her orders.

Charles adjourned the matter to July 31, when she will hear submissions on the commissioner’s application to strike down the court’s orders, after which she will set dates for the hearing of the contempt action.

The eight policemen – acting Sgts Audie Alexander Moona, Jerry London, Rameshwar Gopaul, Daryl Theophilus, Jimmy Marcano, Dirk John, Anslem Knott, and Jimmy Marcano – were successful in challenging the commissioner's continued failure to promote them.

They have been challenging the police promotion exercise since 2016, when, they said, they were told they would be considered for promotion. They said they were called on to act in the position of sergeant owing to a shortage of officers of that rank.

In March last year, Charles ordered the commissioner to reserve 12 positions at the rank of sergeant until she gave her ruling in the matter, which she did a year later, on March 25.

In her ruling this year, Charles held that the commissioner's decision not to promote the eight, on the basis that there were no spaces available at the rank of sergeant, was unfair, unlawful and in breach of the policemen’s rights. She ordered thim to promote them with retroactive effect from April 22, 2016, with any back pay and fringe benefits.

Last month, the eight said they had still not been elevated despite the court’s orders.

The contempt application said the action was part of a “continuing saga of unfairness and breach of public law duty” on the part of the commissioner.

The policemen are represented by attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Dinesh Rambally, Kiel Taklalsingh and Stefan Ramkissoon. Attorney Joel Roper appears for the commissioner.