Kevon Felmine

Al­most three years af­ter he was al­leged­ly beat­en, robbed and false­ly im­pris­oned by po­lice in 2013, a Siparia grounds­man is call­ing on the hi­er­ar­chy of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice to take ac­tion against four South West­ern Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers.

An­drew Ed­mond filed a state­ment with the Po­lice Com­plaints Di­vi­sion (PCD) of the Po­lice Ser­vice on De­cem­ber 30, last year, and plans to make a com­plaint to the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) soon, say­ing that he must get back the $50,800 that was al­leged­ly stolen from him when he was ar­rest­ed in 2008.

Ed­mond, 31, of Siparia be­lieves it was a case of vic­tim­i­sa­tion as his fam­i­ly won a High Court mat­ter against the State in 2008 af­ter po­lice as­sault­ed them while play­ing crick­et near their home on April 5, 2001.

In the re­port to the Po­lice Ser­vice, Ed­mond, who works with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, said he hired a PH taxi in Pa­lo Seco to take him to Point Fortin Li­cens­ing Of­fice to sit his dri­ver's li­cence ex­am­i­na­tion.

Con­fi­dent that he would suc­ceed, he said he with­drew $50,000 from the bank, which he earned through com­pen­sa­tion from the 2008 mat­ter. He said that mon­ey was to buy a used car he had al­ready checked out.

While re­turn­ing home, he said the dri­ver passed through Petrotrin's field road and tried to rob him. He said he de­fend­ed him­self, and the dri­ver fled. He said he drove to­wards San­ta Flo­ra with the in­ten­tion of mak­ing a po­lice re­port but on near­ing the main road, po­lice ap­pre­hend­ed him and as­sault­ed him.

He said blood was drip­ping from his fore­head, and it was on­ly when the of­fi­cers recog­nised who he was that they be­gan to ques­tion him. He said he was tak­en to the San­ta Flo­ra Po­lice Sta­tion where he was kept in a room. Af­ter a while, an of­fi­cer came in with his bag, opened it and count­ed his mon­ey. He said it con­tained the $50,000, $800 in his wal­let, a pair of shoes, birth pa­per and two cell­phones.

Af­ter that, he was tak­en to the Point Fortin Po­lice Sta­tion where he was locked up for six days be­fore ap­pear­ing in the Point Fortin Mag­is­trates Court.

"The mat­ter went be­fore the court and I got bail. On the first and sec­ond hear­ing, the po­lice­man who car­ried me to Point Fortin did not show up.

The case was dis­missed and the dri­ver who tried to rob me nev­er ap­peared in court. They re­alised it was not me to charge, it was the dri­ver they were sup­posed to lock up. He tried to rob me, but it came like the po­lice robbed me too be­cause up to now I have not got back my mon­ey," Ed­mond said.

He said he used to train to be a box­er but the in­juries from the 2001 as­sault ru­ined his chances. He said the 2013 beat­ing has left him de­pen­dent on med­ica­tion.

2008 judg­ment

?In the 2008 law­suit brought by Ed­mond's fa­ther, Owen Ed­mond and broth­er Mar­vin Mari­no Ed­mond, act­ing High court Judge David Alexan­der found the State li­able for as­sault and bat­tery. How­ev­er, he dis­missed the Ed­monds' claim of false im­pris­on­ment, say­ing that the of­fi­cer were act­ing un­der law to ap­pre­hend him on the sus­pi­cion or pre­ven­tion of a crime be­ing com­mit­ted.

On April 5, 2001, Ed­mond and his broth­er left home to play crick­et on a side road off the Siparia Rail­way Road. Dur­ing the game, a fight broke out among some school chil­dren who were look­ing at the game. A short time af­ter, four of­fi­cers ar­rived at the scene and the boys play­ing crick­et ran away, they were chased and held by the po­lice.

They said a po­lice of­fi­cer chased them with a gun in his hand and as they ran in­to some bush­es, the of­fi­cer told them to lie on the ground and they laid in a line. The of­fi­cer then put away his gun, with­drew a ba­ton and as­sault­ed the boys, beat­ing and kick­ing Ed­mond se­vere­ly.