Morvant man loses malicious prosecution lawsuit

A Morvant man who was arrested in 2016 on a drug trafficking charge has lost his malicious prosecution lawsuit against the State.

Jotha Arthur, who sought compensation for the laying of the charge, which was dismissed two years later, instead has to pay $14,000, which represents the legal costs the State incurred to defend the claim.

Dismissing Arthur’s claim was Justice Ricky Rahim, who ruled his argument of an absence of reasonable and probable cause to arrest and charge him was not proven.

He also said the issue of malice on the part of the police officer who arrested Arthur on February 25, 2016, and then charged him.

In his ruling, Rahim also said although Arthur alleged there were breaches of his constitutional rights, he failed to articulate arguments in support and it was “not up to the courts to proceed on a fishing expedition” to determine how these breaches took place.

Rahim said on the evidence, the police had received information from Arthur’s common-law wife, after which they sought and obtained a search warrant to search the home.

“Clearly, the warrant obtained by the police was based on the information provided by the common-law wife of the claimant so that the warrant would have been properly obtained.”

Rahim also pointed out that the evidence also showed that when the officers went to Arthur’s home, he refused to open the door for about 30 minutes, after which the officers heard what appeared to be an attempt to dispose of something down the toilet, “the inference being that of cocaine.”

“The law is clear that the burden remains with the claimant to prove the absence of reasonable and probable cause by evidence produced by him, and the claimant has failed so to do in this case.

“It is equally clear that the charging officer was of the view (one reasonably held) that he had sufficient information to lay a charge for cocaine possession owing to the statements of the officers involved they had been tipped off as it were by the common-law wife of the claimant and having followed through and found him in possession.

“In the view of the court, this is one of the clearest cases of reasonable and probable cause to institute a prosecution.”

In his lawsuit, Arthur claimed he was resting at home when the police demanded he open the front door. Fearing for his life, he did not open the door and it was eventually broken down by the officers. He said when the glass of the front door shattered, he ran to the bathroom and locked the door.

The officers broke down that door, slapped him and kicked him in the stomach, his lawsuit contended. He was then arrested and charged. Arthur said he remained in prison for almost six months before he was able to post bail. He complained of the condition at the prison. His case was dismissed in March 2018 because the prosecution had no file and was not ready to proceed with the matter although the court records showed that the officer who laid the cocaine trafficking charge did appear with witnesses for the prosecution.

Arthur was represented by attorneys Criston J Williams, Celeste St Louis and Kashif Gibson. The State was represented by attorneys Trisha Ramlogan and Jayanti Teeluckdharry.