UNC's Sturge: Charge or no charge, Erla must go

WAYNE STURGE, attorney and the UNC candidate for Toco/Sangre Grande, said while Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher enjoys an initial presumption of innocence (until legally proven guilty) the mere fact of her arrest means she is unsuitable – in the public's eye – and must be replaced as leader of the police.

He made this point at a press briefing on January 31 at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain hours after the police executive held its own press briefing, chaired by DCPs Suzette Martin and Junior Benjamin.

Newsday had asked if the state of emergency (SoE) regulations might deny Harewood-Christopher the benefit of the usual rights (such as legal representation and freedom of movement) and processes afforded to anyone detained in normal times.

Sturge replied, "First of all, the commissioner at present enjoys the presumption of innocence. We accept that."

He opined that it was untenable that the line minister (National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds), National Security Council (headed by the Prime Minister) and Police Service Commission (PSC) had remained mute, in light of Trinidad and Tobago's being in a a state of emergency and in view of the office held by Harewood-Christopher.

The PM did speak on the issue of Harewood-Christopher's arrest, but this was on the evening of January 31, hours after the UNC's press briefing.

"It is untenable – although there is a presumption of innocence – for the CoP to continue.
"Let us assume she is not charged with any offence. How do we justify her continuance, having regard to the nature of the allegations?

"How would that square off in terms of public confidence in the office of CoP and again having regard to the nature of the allegations? It is untenable that she would be allowed to continue."

Sturge said the PSC was now legally empowered to suspend Harewood-Christopher. He suggested she be replaced.

"It is necessary, in my view, to return to Parliament to trigger the processes to have someone appointed. We cannot continue – having regard to what the regulations are – to be without a CoP."

Sturge said the police service as it now stood was "leaderless and rudderless."

"You cannot, at this juncture, have the DCPs and so on put on a public face which suggests that it is business as usual.

"The office of the CoP is one which finds itself in the Constitution.

"So it is not for persons who are not constitutionally appointed to assume a mantle and to tell the public and those in the national community that they are authorised to continue in her name.

"The PSC does not necessarily need a criminal charge for suspension. One knows that disciplinary action can be taken outside of a failure to charge.

"Assuming she is not charged, the PSC can still convene the necessary tribunal, hear evidence and come to its own conclusion and implement what are the measures open to it to discipline. You do not need a charge, you do not need a conviction."

Asked if Harewood-Christopher's legal rights could be curbed by the SoE regulations which allow a criminal suspect to be detained for days without charge, Sturge said no.

"There is a distinction between detention under the SoE and being charged for criminal offences. That's entirely different."

He said any detention under the SoE's emergency regulations would be done via the CoP's issuing an initial detention order, with any subsequent extension having to be authorised by the minister of national security, with a detainee able to go before the SoE tribunal to make recommendations to limit the term of the detention.

"We don't know at this stage if she was detained pursuant to the SoE."

If detention was under the SoE, he said, the police and then the minister respectively may issue detention orders.

But Sturge said the current investigations into the CoP had been going on for some time, before the proclamation of the SoE, and so were unlikely to be related to the SoE.