Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The State has been or­dered to pay over $100,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to a fork­lift op­er­a­tor of Ari­ma, who claimed that he was ma­li­cious­ly pros­e­cut­ed by the po­lice for cam­ou­flage cloth­ing that be­longed to his broth­er in the T&T De­fence Force (TTDF).

De­liv­er­ing a de­ci­sion late last week, High Court Mas­ter Shurlanne Pierre or­dered $118,000 in com­pen­sa­tion for Jaron Be­deau for un­law­ful de­ten­tion and ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion.

Be­deau was ar­rest­ed on Jan­u­ary 5, 2017, af­ter po­lice ex­e­cut­ed a search war­rant for arms and am­mu­ni­tion at his home and found a cam­ou­flage pouch and hat in a suit­case.

Al­though Be­deau al­leged­ly claimed that the items be­longed to his broth­er, who was a mem­ber of the TTDF, the 29-year-old was still ar­rest­ed.

He re­mained de­tained at the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion for three days be­fore he was even­tu­al­ly charged.

Be­deau was grant­ed bail and made sev­er­al ap­pear­ances in court be­fore the charges were dis­missed by Mag­is­trate Ali­cia Chankar due to the fail­ure of the po­lice of­fi­cers, who charged him, to at­tend hear­ings.

Be­deau filed his law­suit in which his lawyers con­tend­ed that he was de­prived of his lib­er­ty, wrong­ful­ly de­tained, not ad­vised or af­ford­ed his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and had suf­fered loss­es be­cause of his wrong­ful ar­rest.

It was up­held by Jus­tice Ricky Rahim, who re­ferred the case to Mas­ter Pierre for her to as­sess the ap­pro­pri­ate com­pen­sa­tion.

As part of her as­sess­ment, Mas­ter Pierre or­dered the State to pay the $27,808.81 Be­deau in­curred in pur­su­ing the case.

Be­deau was rep­re­sent­ed by Sher­von Nor­eiga, Joel Rop­er and Ger­ard Boodram.