Resh­ma Ra­goonath

The de­ci­sion by An­geli­na Mitchell, a moth­er of two, to refuse breathal­yser test­ing at the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion on Wednes­day night cost her $4,625 in fines yes­ter­day. The 44-year-old woman, of Thomp­son Gar­dens, Tarou­ba South, Mara­bel­la, ap­peared be­fore San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan charged with dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour and fail­ing to sub­mit breath for test­ing. Both of­fences oc­curred at the po­lice sta­tion. Ram­bachan, in pass­ing sen­tence, told Mitchell: "The po­lice sta­tion is a place of last re­sort where peo­ple are trau­ma­tised and have their lib­er­ty tak­en away. The po­lice of­fi­cers do not need ex­tra func­tion with some­one get­ting on a lit­tle bad."

He warned Mitchell, a labour­er, to be mind­ful of her be­hav­iour, es­pe­cial­ly in pub­lic places like po­lice sta­tions. "In the po­lice sta­tion and any pub­lic place you have to be­have in a serene and com­fort­able way with oth­ers," he added. Mitchell was ar­rest­ed by WPC Alana Cal­len­der and PC Mirza Mo­hammed af­ter she failed to pro­vide a spec­i­men of breath for test­ing with­out rea­son­able cause and be­haved in a dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour at the sta­tion. She plead­ed guilty to both of­fences. Ram­bachan asked the woman why she did not sub­mit for test­ing and she said: "I give it the last time once." "You have to give it on each oc­ca­sion they re­quest it," the mag­is­trate re­spond­ed.

She said: "I on­ly had a few drinks. I will do the test." Mitchell was un­able to pro­vide a suf­fi­cient sam­ple of breath and was told she was wil­ful­ly fail­ing to give a spec­i­men. She was asked to try again and the woman replied: "Of­fi­cer you try­ing to pap­pyshow me. I ain't do­ing no test." She be­gan ges­tic­u­lat­ing and speak­ing in a loud tone of voice and hit­ting her hand on the counter.