AN­NA-LISA PAUL &

DEREK ACHONG

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions (I&I), Suzette Mar­tin, says in­ves­ti­ga­tors will re­turn to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) this week for ad­vice re­lat­ing to the on­go­ing probe in­to sus­pend­ed Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Mar­tin said, “We vis­it­ed the DPP on two oc­ca­sions and we are go­ing to vis­it him be­fore the end of this week.”

The po­lice are sched­uled to re­turn to DPP Roger Gas­pard to present their case, fol­low­ing which a de­ter­mi­na­tion can be made on what charges, if any, Hare­wood-Christo­pher might be fac­ing.

The em­bat­tled top cop was ar­rest­ed at her of­fice at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing on Jan­u­ary 30 by a team of de­tec­tives in­struct­ed by I&I. Her ar­rest was in re­la­tion to a probe in­to the pro­cure­ment and im­por­ta­tion of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA).

Fol­low­ing ex­ten­sive ques­tion­ing by in­ves­ti­ga­tors, she was lat­er tak­en to the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion, where she was de­tained for two days be­fore be­ing re­leased on Jan­u­ary 1 with­out charge.

Act­ing CoP Ju­nior Ben­jamin was ap­point­ed by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) on Feb­ru­ary 6, af­ter sus­pend­ing Hare­wood-Christo­pher on Jan­u­ary 31.

Mean­while, Hare­wood-Christo­pher will have to wait a lit­tle while longer to learn the fate of her law­suit against the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) over its de­ci­sion to sus­pend her pend­ing the out­come of a crim­i­nal probe. 

When High Court Judge Christo­pher Sieuc­hand held a case man­age­ment con­fer­ence ear­ly last month, he re­served yes­ter­day (April 15) to de­liv­er his de­ci­sion. 

Re­spond­ing to a re­quest for ac­cess to the hear­ing, which was list­ed on the Ju­di­cia­ry’s web­site, Jus­tice Sieuc­hand’s staff in­di­cat­ed that it (the hear­ing) was va­cat­ed and that the de­ci­sion will be de­liv­ered to the par­ties via email “in due course”. 

Hare­wood-Christo­pher filed the law­suit chal­leng­ing the le­gal­i­ty of her sus­pen­sion. 

She al­so sought an in­junc­tion over the com­mis­sion’s de­ci­sion to ap­point DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin to tem­porar­i­ly re­place her while she is on sus­pen­sion. 

The in­junc­tion was re­ject­ed by Jus­tice Sieuc­hand, who still grant­ed her leave to pur­sue her sub­stan­tive case. 

“In my view, the bal­ance of con­ve­nience does not favour grant­i­ng this or­der, in fact, it mil­i­tates against it,” Jus­tice Sieuc­hand said. 

He said that leav­ing the post open would be in­ap­pro­pri­ate. 

“Al­low­ing such a void to per­sist can not in my view be jus­ti­fied when the present cir­cum­stances are such that our coun­try is plagued by high lev­els of re­port­ed se­ri­ous crime and we con­tin­ue un­der a State of Emer­gency,” he said then in Feb­ru­ary. 

“The pow­ers of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice are there for a rea­son and some­one ought to be en­trust­ed to dis­charge them,” he added. 

Hare­wood-Christo­pher was rep­re­sent­ed by Pamela El­der, SC, Rus­sell Warn­er, and Richard Thomas. Deb­o­rah Peake, SC, and Ravi Heffes-Doon are rep­re­sent­ing the PolSC. 

Ap­point­ed as CoP in Feb­ru­ary 2023, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was sus­pend­ed with just three and a half months left to go be­fore her con­tract ex­pires in May.

Act­ing CoP mum on pro­mo­tion ex­er­cise

Asked to in­di­cate how the search for a new com­mis­sion­er of po­lice was pro­gress­ing, as three of those present at the head ta­ble yes­ter­day are in the run­ning for the post, act­ing top cop Ben­jamin said, “There is a process that is go­ing on and we await the re­sults of the process.”

Ben­jamin, Mar­tin and DCP Curt Si­mon are re­port­ed to be among those who have ap­plied for the post.