Point Fortin labourer gets $.1m for 'Bikini Bottoms' beating

A Point Fortin man who was dragged to an unsanitary area near a washroom at the "Bikini Bottoms” event in Point Fortin in August 2017 will receive $.1 million in compensation for the “egregious and heavy-handed” assault by the police.

In a decision on the quantum of damages for casual labourer Kriston Aguillera, Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell said compensation was appropriate because of “the retaliatory nature of the assault and the need for deterrence of this type of conduct” by the police.

She awarded Aguillera, 26, a total of $135,000.

The judge had previously delivered an oral decision on liability at a virtual hearing of the trial in October. The decision on the assessment of the amount of compensation was reserved. Last month, Donaldson-Honeywell gave her decision on compensation, saying, “The conduct of the police officers in launching a retaliatory physical attack on a civilian is an abuse of their powers.

“Such outrageous conduct by the police is deserving of a further punitive award.”

Aguillera had gone to the “Bikini Bottoms” event at Clifton Hill when he had an altercation with the sister of a woman police officer who was on duty at the party.

The judgment said they threw alcoholic beverages from plastic cups at each other and afterwards the police officer accosted Aguillera, complaining he had interfered with her sister. Afterwards, several other police officers, who were also on duty, joined in confronting Aguillera, who was dragged to an unsanitary area near the washroom. There they beat him for more than 15 minutes with their feet, fists and batons. One baton was broken in the attack, the decision said.

Aguillera was dumped outside the venue without being arrested or charged. His friends and relatives took him to the Point Fortin hospital and he was transferred to the San Fernando hospital for X-rays and other tests.

In her decision, Donaldson-Honeywell said it was clear that the assault and battery by the police was “indeed oppressive, illegal and malicious” as, on evidence, it was a reprisal of sorts.

She said there was sufficient evidence to find that a woman police officer grabbed Aguillera by the scruff of his neck, by his collar, and other officers dragged him to the side of the party.

She also said he was eventually taken to a room, which was very insanitary, and they had him in there for several minutes.

“They were beating him,” she added, as she determined that Aguillera’s case was more credible than that of the State.

“The case for the defendant is somewhat illogical,” she also noted, since it was claimed that the police officer’s sister was attacked with a glass bottle, but the State did not contradict the evidence that glass bottles were not allowed in the party.

“So the whole issue of the glass bottle used by the claimant as a weapon is somewhat in defiance of logic,” the judge pointed out.

Aguillera was represented by attorneys Kyle Fortune and Janet Peters. Stefan Jaikaran and Ryanka Ragbir appeared for the State.