Engineer to be compensated for false imprisonment

AN engineer with the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries will be compensated by the State after he was strip searched and put in a holding cell of the Port of Spain magistrates’ court when he appeared on a traffic offence.

Ryan Jaggernauth was awarded $55,000 by Master Sherlanne Pierre who also ordered the State to pay his legal costs.

On May 15, 2017, Jaggernauth pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and put on a $1,000 bond and to keep the peace for two years.

After his court appearance, he was taken to the holding cells by police, photographed and strip searched.

He said he told them he was just there to sign a bond, and was told “that will take ah while” and put in a cell.

Jaggernauth said he was also taunted by other prisoners, and feared for his life.

Three hours and 25 minutes later, he signed his bond and left the court “humiliated, embarrassed, distressed” and “deathly afraid” of what the men in the cell might have done to him.

In his false-imprisonment claim, Jaggernauth said he suffered the indignity of having to strip down to his underwear in the presence of the police without even knowing why he was arrested and being held in the cells at the courthouse.

In June, Justice Nadia Kangaloo ruled that the police had no authority to detain anyone put on a bond to keep the peace.

In her ruling, she advised that urgent steps be taken for people to be able to sign their bond documents expeditiously. Jaggernauth was represented by attorneys Lee Merry and Larry Boyer.