DCP to be cross-examined in promotion lawsuit

ATTORNEYS for Insp Mark Hernandez, the former head of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT), will cross-examine top police officials as part of a legal challenge to the promotion process for assistant superintendents.

Justice Frank Seepersad made the order on December 3, in Hernandez’s lawsuit scrutinising the fairness of the assessments.

The judge allowed limited questioning of Natasha George, the deputy commissioner in charge of administration, saying there was a need to hear her testimony directly.

Attorneys were also granted permission to question Dr Anthony Watkins, head of Odyssey Consult Inc, the consultancy firm managing the promotion process, on related procedural concerns.

Seepersad said there was no undue prejudice in allowing the cross-examinations, despite objections from attorney Gerald Ramdeen.

Hernandez will also be subject to questioning from the commissioner's legal team, led by Senior Counsel Rishi Dass.

Cross-examinations are scheduled for January 6, 2025, with the judge expecting to give a ruling by mid-February.

Previously, the judge had hoped to give a decision in December, but this was delayed by numerous applications.

This still means the promotion to that rank cannot take place until the court gives its final decision. There is currently an injunction stopping the commissioner from continuing the process for some 169 inspectors for the rank of ASP.

In October, the judge joined Odyssey and the representative body for second-division officers, the Police Service Social and Welfare Association (TTPSSWA), in the lawsuit.

Hernandez’s lawsuit disputes the procedural integrity of the promotion assessment. It also questions the process’s fairness, transparency and adherence to police service regulations.

His attorneys, Ramdeen, Jagdeo Singh, Dayadai Harripaul and Nerissa Bala, contend the process failed to follow proper guidelines and deprived qualified officers of fair advancement opportunities.

In an affidavit, the association’s president, ASP Gideon Dickson, said members asked the association to intervene, as they want the promotion exercise completed before some of them reach the compulsory retirement age of 55 in the coming months.

Dickson said the association was not seeking to derail the case, but wanted to participate because the matter directly touches the interests of its members.

He said the last promotion exercise for ASPs took place in late 2018, and the six-year delay was “unreasonable and inordinate.”

Dickson said the stagnation in promoting inspectors has contributed to “an alarming attrition and brain drain” in the police, since second-division officers retire at 55 and first-division officers at 60.

He also said some members have completed the 2024 assessment process, and their advancement was being stymied. From membership feedback, he said they were satisfied the 2024 process, despite the concerns raised, was “fair, transparent and lawful.”

“The TTPSSWA stands for fairness, transparency, accountability for all its members and as such will not sit idly by as a casual observer if we consider those fundamentals to be at risk irrespective of status, socio-economic group or creed.”

His colleague Insp Veneta Weaver-Ali, of the White Collar Crime Unit, made a similar complaint. She is represented by Jagdeo Singh, Karina Singh, Keston Lewis, Savitri Samaroo and Vashisht Seepersad.