Derek Achong

A 30-year-old Barataria man who claimed he was framed by po­lice was yes­ter­day freed of drug-traf­fick­ing charges. Sher­win La Touche, a labour­er, of Up­per Eighth Av­enue, Barataria, left the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court a free man af­ter he was found not guilty of traf­fick­ing in mar­i­jua­na, by Se­nior Mag­is­trate Cheryl-Ann Blake.

The pros­e­cu­tion con­tend­ed that in Jan­u­ary 2008, La Touche was walk­ing on Eighth Street when he was stopped by the po­lice. The po­lice al­leged that he dropped a bag and ran through a near­by track. The bag was lat­er found to con­tain 2.1 ki­los of mar­i­jua­na.

La Touche, who was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Lyn­don Leu, was ar­rest­ed a year lat­er. He claimed in his evdence that the facts giv­en by the of­fi­cers in the case were fab­ri­cat­ed. Three wit­ness­es who gave ev­i­dence on be­half of the de­fence all sup­port­ed La Touche's ver­sion of the events lead­ing to his ar­rest.

La Touche al­so claimed po­lice bru­tal­i­ty, said to have oc­curred sub­se­quent to his ar­rest in 2009. He was ar­rest­ed af­ter in­ves­ti­ga­tions by Sgt Roger Alexan­der and PC Ker­win Titre, both of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force. Court pros­e­cu­tor Cal­lis­tas Charles con­duct­ed the State's case.