Derek Achong

A heavy equip­ment op­er­a­tor of Va­len­cia has sued the State over the ac­tions of a group of po­lice of­fi­cers, who al­leged­ly de­nied him a tele­phone call to a rel­a­tive and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his at­tor­ney when he was ar­rest­ed in Ju­ly. 

In his law­suit, filed in the Port-of-Spain High Court on Tues­day, lawyers rep­re­sent­ing David Sanchez, of Cumaca Road, Va­len­cia, claimed that his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were in­fringed by the of­fi­cers’ al­leged con­duct. 

Ac­cord­ing to Sanchez’s fixed date claim form, he was ar­rest­ed in Waller­field for al­leged­ly en­gag­ing in il­le­gal min­ing on Ju­ly 16, 2019. 

Sanchez spent sev­er­al days in po­lice cus­tody be­fore he was even­tu­al­ly charged and tak­en to court. Sanchez plead­ed not guilty to the of­fence and was re­leased on bail. The charge is still pend­ing. 

In his law­suit, Sanchez’s lawyers Matthew Gayle and Ja­son Jones al­leged that when they at­tempt­ed to vis­it their client at the Cu­mu­to Po­lice Sta­tion, they were de­nied ac­cess to him. 

They al­leged that dur­ing the pe­ri­od some­one, who false­ly claimed to be Sanchez’s lawyer, at­tempt­ed to speak to him.

“I had nev­er seen this per­son be­fore and I have not seen him since...He in­formed me that some­one had sent him to see me to find out what had hap­pened and what I had told the po­lice,” Sanchez said in his af­fi­davit. 

Sanchez al­so claimed that he suf­fered emo­tion­al trau­ma from be­ing de­nied ac­cess to his fam­i­ly and at­tor­neys. 

“I can con­fi­dent­ly say that rest­less­ness and fear that I felt hav­ing been de­tained for four days in Cu­mu­to with­out charge would have been sig­nif­i­cant­ly less had I been al­lowed to see him in the cells and take le­gal ad­vice,” Sanchez said. 

Through his law­suit, Sanchez is seek­ing de­c­la­ra­tions over the of­fi­cers’ con­duct as well as com­pen­sa­tion for the al­leged breach­es of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights. 

Sanchez’s case is ex­pect­ed to come up for hear­ing, lat­er this month.