Judge to rule on clearing businessman's TTPS record

BUSINESSMAN Michael St John will have to wait until October 1 to find out if the Commissioner of Police (CoP) will be ordered to correct his allegedly inaccurate personal information in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) database.

At a hearing on March 6, Justice Nadia Kangaloo set the date for her ruling on St John's lawsuit, which seeks a court order compelling the CoP to amend the police’s records, including the Versadex system,

St John contends the database “incorrectly” listed him as a convicted drug dealer who was deported.

He is represented by Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and attorney Om Lalla. His legal team contends that the commissioner has repeatedly failed to correct the inaccurate information, despite obligations under Section 36(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This section states that a public authority must correct inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading personal information upon request. St John argues that the CoP’s failure to act is an ongoing violation of his rights.

St John is the owner of Tower Promotion Company Ltd and D’Dial Fitness.

According to his lawsuit, after being denied a United States green card in 2017 because of ‘certain information against him,’ St John began investigating the case. He was given screenshots of his profile on the TTPS database, which listed him as being convicted of drug trafficking in August 2002 and a subsequent deportee from the US.

St John said the information was false, as he was never convicted of drug trafficking.

His claim said the first screen shot incorrectly stated: “foreign offender, deportee charged in TT, drug offender, deported in…”

“The second screenshot incorrectly stated, ‘Drug trafficking, status convicted, and Place New York. The fourth screenshot incorrectly stated ‘Foreign offence, Offence cocaine—sell, status convicted and place New York.’

“The seventh screenshot, incorrectly stated deportation and 2022 Aug 15. In the body of the document, it states, ‘Known offender Michael St John was deported from the US on 9th December 2022 for attempting to enter the US on 30 March 2022 by using a forged passport. Please be advised that all narcotic charges against the subject were dropped to expedite the subject’s deportation on false passport charges,” the legal document stated.

In April 2024, St John sent a pre-action protocol letter to then CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher, giving her 14 days to respond.

“It has affected his trading and business interests, which require him to apply for licences, regulatory permits, insurance, and loans for his businesses. This has posed a significant obstacle to his business,” Maharaj said at a press conference in April 2024.

“This matter involves a very serious issue of both human rights and constitutional rights, as it affects the security of the person when false information is held by public authority.

“The revelation of this false information stored on a police database raises serious issues on the integrity of the system and the damage, not only to our client but others who may be unaware of the existence of this data system where information could be stored and manipulated.

“The danger of national security agencies having a system that may have been corrupted or compromised is a serious indictment on the integrity of our national security,” he said.

In its response to St John, in April 2022, the police took no responsibility for the information in the screenshots, and said
that St John had a clean record and that the information in the screenshots was not related to St John. Therefore, it said the request to remove the information was not applicable.

Maharaj said even if the information was not created by the police but the police used and controlled the information, it had to accept responsibility for it. He said anyone could be accused of serious offences and they would not allowed to deal with the allegations.

“If it (police) says it doesn’t know anything about Versadex system – it doesn’t know it, it doesn’t own it, it doesn’t have anything to do with it – the TTPS had an option of putting a supplementary statement on the TTPS record to show that he has a certificate of good character but that (the Versadex record) is untrue, it’s false and Versadex system is false. They didn’t do that.”

At Thursday’s hearing, attorney Tsonda Gayle, who appeared for the CoP, sought an extension to file its defence, saying instruction was given to have the Attorney General’s office represent the police.

Although he did not object, Maharaj said April 17 was too long. Instead, the police were given until March 28. Maharaj and his team will reply by April 11 and both sides will file submissions in May and June before the judge delivers her ruling on October 1.