Events promoter awarded $.8m compensation

UPDATE:

A PORT of Spain man has been awarded over $.8 million in compensation after he was shot at by police at a bar in El Dorado, then slapped with a charge of having a forged driver’s permit, which was eventually dropped.

Master Marissa Robertson yesterday ordered the State to compensate Dane Durham, an events promoter of Old St Joseph Road, $300,000 for assault and battery; $375,000 for malicious prosecution; $29,625 in special damages, $436,500 for the cost of future surgery for the five gunshot wounds he received to his thighs; exemplary damages of $25,000, and interest and costs.

Durham was represented by attorney Joel Roper. In his lawsuit he said on April 6, 2014, he was at the Captain’s Bar, at St Cecilia Street, El Dorado, to meet someone. He said the man he went to meet was with one of the police officers who later shot him. Durham said he left the bar for a minute to turn off his car, which he had left running, but before he could get into it, he saw a man reach for a gun.

Thinking he was about to be robbed, he jumped into his car and heard several gunshots.
A second man – the person he earlier saw with the man he was at the bar to meet – also started shooting at him.

His lawsuit said he was shot at from both sides of his car and was hit several times on his lower body. It also said he was unarmed.

Durham managed to drive away, but crashed into a curb nearby. He said he ran out of his car with his personal belongings, which included a pouch containing $100,000, and two cellphones.
Bleeding and in pain, he ran into an apartment building and begged a woman to call the police and his common-law wife. While he was lying in the woman’s apartment, bleeding, a group of eight men, including the two police officers who shot him, ran in and shouted, “Police, police.”
He said none of them identified themselves by showing their police identification cards.

Durham was handcuffed and questioned about the money, while being cuffed on his head, neck, back and stomach.

Police took the money, the cellphones, a gold chain and several rings and he was arrested, but not told for what.

He was taken back to the bar where the police collected the spent bullet shells, and then to the Mt Hope Hospital.

Durham said he texted his common-law wife using a third cellphone he had hidden in his pants, and asked her to come to the hospital with a lawyer.

He spent eight days at the hospital under police guard and when he was released he was moved around from police station to police station. The lawsuit said he was taken to five different stations and kept for seven days before being charged for possession of the fake driver’s permit.
He went to court, was granted bail but was unable to access it, and was kept in prison for six months before the case against him was dismissed because the police failed to turn up in court.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A PORT of Spain man has been awarded over $.8 million in compensation after he was shot at by police at a bar in El Dorado, and slapped with a charge of having a forged driver’s permit, which was eventually dropped.

Master Marissa Robertson today ordered the State to compensate Dane Durham, an events promoter, of Old St Joseph Road,

Durham was shot at by two police officers on April 6, 2014, in El Dorado.

He was also slapped with a charge of possession of a fake driver's permit.

He spent eight days in hospital and an additional seven days before he was taken to court. Unable to access bail, Durham spent six months in prison before the charge was dismissed.