Court orders $40,000 in compensation

A health service trainee who was arrested in 2016 for failing to pay an outstanding $100 on a $1,000 traffic ticket she got four years earlier will receive $40, 000 in compensation for what a High Court judge said reflected the gross incompetence of the police.

Alyssa Morgan was arrested on April 28, 2016, at about 3.30 am. She was kept in a police vehicle for several hours while the police went to pick up male prisoners who were kept in the tray and then to the police station where she was detained for hours. She was handcuffed, frightened and embarrassed.

She was eventually released and was told by a senior police officer at the station, it was not the police’s fault she was arrested but the courts.

It turns out her mother had paid $900 on the ticket and returned a few days later to pay the outstanding $100 balance. The traffic ticket was for not wearing a seatbelt.

The warrant for Morgan's arrest was issued December 7, 2012, and four years later she was arrested.

Donaldson -Honeywell said the events of this case “reflect gross incompetence both In keeping track of paid fines and in the process of addressing suspected non payment of a fine in minor offences.”

In awarding Morgan compensation, the judge said the arrest warrant should have been recalled years ago and her arrest was unacceptable.

As she ruled that warrants should be executed in a timely manner, Donaldson-Honeywell said the officers "having inefficiently delayed the execution of the warrant for many years", had the discretion to not arrest Morgan the way they did.

She said the police had a duty to ensure no one was unduly deprived of their liberty and should have tried to verify her claims she paid the ticket before arresting her.

The judge was also critical of the police's failure to put in place a proper system to ensure warrants are recalled once fines are paid.

Morgan was represented by attorneys Farai Hove Masaisai, Issa Jones and Antoyna Pierre. The State was represented by attorneys Mary Davis and Nairob Smart.