Sascha Wil­son

A La Brea man, who was not point­ed out dur­ing two iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rades, but was charged with rob­bery be­cause he fit the de­scrip­tion of a “tall black man” has been award­ed more than $265,000 in dam­ages.

Rul­ing in favour of Pe­ter Fred­er­ick yes­ter­day, Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad re­it­er­at­ed his call for er­rant po­lice of­fi­cers to pay dam­ages from their own pock­ets.

Seep­er­sad, who has al­so called for the re­sump­tion of phys­i­cal court, heard the mat­ter and de­liv­ered judg­ment in an open court­room in the San Fer­nan­do High Court. No one wore masks but they were spaced about ten feet apart.

De­liv­er­ing the rul­ing, Seep­er­sad said, “It is un­ac­cept­able that in the ab­sence of be­ing point­ed out at an ID pa­rade and where there was no con­fes­sion, that the claimant an Afro Trinida­di­an cit­i­zen was charged be­cause he fit the de­scrip­tion of a tall black man.”

The judge said re­form is need­ed to make er­rant of­fi­cers bear the award of ex­em­plary dam­ages.

Fred­er­ick filed the law­suit in May last year for ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion and false im­pris­on­ment fol­low­ing his ar­rest on Au­gust 17, 2015.

The po­lice asked him about an in­jury he had and where he lived. They then told him he was want­ed for ques­tion­ing by the La Brea po­lice.

He was placed in a dirty cell and then lat­er tak­en to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion where he was ques­tioned in con­nec­tions with a su­per­mar­ket rob­bery in Rousil­lac.

He de­nied know­ing any­thing about the rob­bery. He was asked to sign his name on a blank pa­per, but he re­fused.

The po­lice then searched the home of his com­mon-law wife and moth­er, but noth­ing il­le­gal was found. He was tak­en back to the cell where he was kept for four days and re­fused baths, as well as the med­ica­tion for his in­juries.

The next day he was placed on two iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rades, but he was not point­ed out.

How­ev­er, on Au­gust 24 he was charged with armed rob­bery and tak­en be­fore a mag­is­trate who re­fused to grant him bail. He was then tak­en to the Siparia Health Fa­cil­i­ty to re­move the stitch­es on his wound. He re­mained on re­mand at the Gold­en Grove Prison in Arou­ca un­til he was grant­ed bail in Oc­to­ber 2015.

Dur­ing that time, he con­tract­ed a flu due to dai­ly cold baths at 4.30 am. He spent a to­tal of 65 days in cus­tody.

The charge was dis­missed on Ju­ly 26, 2016 af­ter the pros­e­cu­tion failed to give any dis­clo­sure or state­ments to Fred­er­ick’s at­tor­ney.

The judge award­ed gen­er­al dam­ages for $225,000 with an up­lift for ag­gra­vat­ed dam­ages and ex­em­plary dam­ages in the sum of $40,000 with in­ter­est. The State was or­dered to pay costs. Fred­er­ick was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Joseph Sookoo while the State was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Stephen Jaikaran.