Shal­iza Has­sanali

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has record­ed close to 1,000 mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice (MiPO) com­plaints among po­lice of­fi­cers in the last decade. The com­plaints were tab­u­lat­ed based on fig­ures pub­lished in the PCA’s re­ports from 2013 to 2023. A break­down showed that of the 6,846 over­all com­plaints the PCA re­ceived from the pub­lic against of­fi­cers dur­ing the ten years, 941 were for MiPO.

Of the 1,103 com­plaints reach­ing the PCA in 2023, 246 were mis­be­hav­iour re­ports. This was the PCA’s high­est mis­be­hav­iour fig­ure to date. The sec­ond-high­est mis­be­hav­iour com­plaint was in 2020. There were 153 mis­be­hav­iour re­ports out of an over­all 721 com­plaints made.

In 2021 the au­thor­i­ty reg­is­tered 145 mis­be­hav­iour com­plaints out of the 969 re­ports sub­mit­ted.

Dur­ing a 2023 Pub­lic Ac­counts Com­mit­tee in­quiry, PCA Di­rec­tor David West said the PCA had seen a sig­nif­i­cant rise in the num­ber of com­plaints of mis­be­hav­iour be­ing com­mit­ted by po­lice of­fi­cers.

How­ev­er, po­lice of­fi­cers are not the on­ly ones fac­ing MiPO charges. Scores of peo­ple in pub­lic of­fice have been hauled be­fore the courts on MiPO charges.

Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, MPs, a sen­a­tor, a king’s coun­sel, a coun­cil­lor, an In­land Rev­enue Di­vi­sion (IRD) su­per­vi­sor, em­ploy­ees of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA), and staff at the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands are among some of the peo­ple charged over the last two decades.

Though many peo­ple have been tak­en to courts on MiPO charges, on­ly a few in­di­vid­u­als have been fined while the cas­es in­volv­ing oth­ers were dis­missed.

While con­vic­tions for mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice have oc­curred, they are rel­a­tive­ly rare and of­ten sub­ject to ap­peals and le­gal chal­lenges.

MiPO is a com­mon law of­fence. The of­fence can on­ly be com­mit­ted by a pub­lic of­fi­cer who mis­con­ducts him­self/her­self or ne­glects to per­form his/her du­ties, lead­ing to an abuse of pub­lic trust. It’s a dif­fi­cult and com­plex of­fence to es­tab­lish.

Pros­e­cut­ing a case like this in­volves prov­ing that the pub­lic of­fi­cer’s ac­tions or fail­ure to act were sig­nif­i­cant enough to vi­o­late the trust the pub­lic placed in them. This can be dif­fi­cult, as it re­quires ev­i­dence of mis­con­duct or ne­glect that caused harm or an abuse of pow­er, of­ten re­quir­ing thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion and le­gal scruti­ny.

In the last five years, there has been a pro­lif­er­a­tion of po­lice of­fi­cers of vary­ing ranks be­ing charged for the of­fence. Charges have al­so been laid against pub­lic ser­vants who worked in the min­istries of fi­nance, agri­cul­ture, and youth de­vel­op­ment and na­tion­al ser­vice.

The is­sue of al­leged MiPO resur­faced last Thurs­day fol­low­ing the ar­rest and in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the coun­try’s first fe­male Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher re­gard­ing the im­por­ta­tion of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency.

At a press con­fer­ence host­ed by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice hours lat­er, Cpl Za­heer Ali ques­tioned on what grounds Hare­wood-Christo­pher had been ar­rest­ed, said, “At this stage, we are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the un­law­ful pro­cure­ment of firearms and ac­ces­sories, and that will take us in­to the of­fence of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.”

Last Sat­ur­day, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was re­leased. Her at­tor­ney Pamela El­der, SC, in­sist­ed there was not one shred of ev­i­dence against her client. By Mon­day, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was sus­pend­ed, re­sult­ing in El­der send­ing a pre-ac­tion let­ter to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion to re­scind the sus­pen­sion. That mat­ter is now be­fore the court for a de­ter­mi­na­tion.

MiPO cas­es dis­con­tin­ued

Er­ic Williams and Franklin Khan

In 2006, Er­ic Williams, then Port-of-Spain South MP re­signed as en­er­gy min­is­ter fol­low­ing a fi­nan­cial scan­dal in which it was al­leged that he ac­cept­ed $75,000 in bribes in re­turn for giv­ing con­tracts to lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor Dhansam Dhan­sook’s seis­mic project in 2004.

Williams faced sev­en charges of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice for cor­rupt­ly re­ceiv­ing the mon­ey. He was one of two gov­ern­ment min­is­ters un­der then prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning’s ad­min­is­tra­tion ac­cused of bribery al­le­ga­tions by Dhan­sook.

The oth­er min­is­ter was Franklin Khan, who was charged with six mis­be­hav­iour of­fences of cor­rupt­ly re­ceiv­ing $120,500 in bribes from Dhan­sook in ex­change for con­tracts.

Dur­ing the po­lice’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Khan re­signed from his min­is­te­r­i­al post and as PNM’s par­ty chair­man.

The charges against Williams were dis­missed in 2008 by Mag­is­trate Lu­ci­na Car­de­nas-Ra­goo­nanan, who de­scribed the ev­i­dence by Dhan­sook as vague and un­be­liev­able. Two years lat­er, Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard with­drew the charges against Khan, stat­ing the State could no longer re­ly on Dhan­sook’s ev­i­dence. Khan broke down in tears, stat­ing that the case was tor­ture for him and his fam­i­ly.

In 2013, Dhan­sook was slapped with 13 of­fences of per­vert­ing the course of pub­lic jus­tice for false­ly giv­ing ev­i­dence against Khan and Williams. His mat­ter is still lin­ger­ing in the court.

Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald

For­mer pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald al­so had one Mis­be­hav­iour charge dis­con­tin­ued by Gas­pard in 2022. The dis­con­tin­ued charge was in re­la­tion to the al­leged ap­proval of a $2.3 mil­lion project at Mar­cano Quar­ry in Laven­tille. At that time, Mc­Don­ald had six charges be­fore the court, two of which were for mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic Of­fice.

Mc­Don­ald was one of five peo­ple who faced a to­tal of 49 charges in 2019 of at­tempt­ing to de­fraud the gov­ern­ment by al­leged­ly procur­ing funds for Carew’s Cal­abar Foun­da­tion un­der the guise that it was char­i­ty. Af­ter she was charged, Mc­Don­ald was re­moved as pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion min­is­ter and deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM.

At the time of her death in De­cem­ber 2023, Mc­Don­ald, 65, was still fight­ing to clear her name from cor­rup­tion.

Anand Ram­lo­gan, Ger­ald Ramdeen, Vin­cent Nel­son

British King’s Coun­sel Vin­cent Nel­son, the State’s co­op­er­at­ing wit­ness in a le­gal fee kick­back case against for­mer UNC at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, and for­mer op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Ger­ald Ramdeen, was fined $2.25 mil­lion in 2020 for his role in the crime. This mat­ter stirred na­tion­al at­ten­tion.

High Court Judge Mal­colm Holdip fined Nel­son $250,000 for al­leged­ly con­spir­ing with Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen to breach Sec­tion 3 of the Pre­ven­tion of Cor­rup­tion Act and $2 mil­lion for al­leged­ly con­spir­ing with the duo to breach Sec­tion 45 of the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act.

Nel­son was in­dict­ed on three charges, one of which was MiPO. The charges against Nel­son, Ram­lo­gan, and Ramdeen arose out of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­most $1 bil­lion in le­gal fees, which was paid to pri­vate le­gal prac­ti­tion­ers who rep­re­sent­ed the State and state com­pa­nies in le­gal pro­ceed­ings dur­ing Ram­lo­gan’s tenure be­tween 2010 and 2015.

The mis­be­hav­iour charge was dis­con­tin­ued af­ter Nel­son en­tered in­to a plea agree­ment with the DPP’s of­fice in ex­change for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen. How­ev­er, in 2022, Gas­pard dis­con­tin­ued the State’s pros­e­cu­tion of Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen since Nel­son was un­will­ing to give ev­i­dence un­til his claim for breach of in­dem­ni­ty and dam­ages was con­clud­ed.

Gas­pard said Nel­son was al­leg­ing that he was giv­en in­dem­ni­ty in re­turn for pro­vid­ing a state­ment con­cern­ing “this case” against both men. In his civ­il claim, Nel­son sought al­most $100 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion for al­leged mul­ti­ple breach­es of the agree­ment with the State.

The tri­al of Nel­son’s mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar law­suit over the Gov­ern­ment’s al­leged breach of an in­dem­ni­ty agree­ment be­gan in Jan­u­ary 2024.

Anil Ma­haraj

In 2021, then UNC Cu­mu­to/Tamana coun­cil­lor Anil Ma­haraj was charged with one count of mis­be­hav­iour for al­leged­ly de­mand­ing the sum of $15,000 from a con­trac­tor at the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Ma­haraj, who chaired the fi­nance, plan­ning and al­lo­ca­tions of re­sources com­mit­tee of the cor­po­ra­tion, plead­ed not guilty to the charge. De­spite calls for Ma­haraj to step down as coun­cil­lor, he did not budge. The UNC did not re­s­e­lect Ma­haraj to con­test the 2023 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions. Four years lat­er, there has been no up­date on his case.

Cas­es be­fore the court

David Lee

On the heels of Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen’s case be­ing dis­con­tin­ued, UNC’s Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee was slapped with charges of mis­be­hav­iour and con­spir­a­cy to de­fraud the Gov­ern­ment in 2022. The charges sur­round­ed the pur­chase of a $2.3 mil­lion Mer­cedes-Benz and whether a $1.4 mil­lion tax ex­emp­tion on the ve­hi­cle may have ben­e­fit­ed a par­ty fi­nancier.

The po­lice be­gan a probe to de­ter­mine whether Lee, an op­po­si­tion MP, used the ex­emp­tion to ben­e­fit a busi­ness­man and UNC fi­nancier and whether Lee was ever in pos­ses­sion of the ve­hi­cle. This mat­ter is still be­fore the court.

SSA

Last May, three for­mer mem­bers of the SSA, self-pro­fessed spy and pas­tor Ian Brown, Su­san Portell-Grif­fith—a for­mer SSA se­cu­ri­ty su­per­vi­sor—and Sgt Sher­win Wal­dron, a tac­ti­cal op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer, were charged with mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice. Brown was al­leged to have mis­be­haved by hav­ing in his pos­ses­sion four pro­hib­it­ed firearms, name­ly two Sig Sauer MPX, two Sig Sauer 516, and 360 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion on March 5.

His co-ac­cused are al­leged to have trans­ferred, with­out law­ful au­thor­i­ty, the same four guns and am­mu­ni­tion. The charges are that on April 20, 2021, the guns and am­mu­ni­tion were loaned, with­out au­thor­i­ty from the SSA, by the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT) to the Guard Unit to be used for guard du­ties at the Cu­mu­to Camp, Waller­field.

This mat­ter is still pend­ing.

IRD su­per­vi­sor Lystra Irv­ing

In 2023, IRD su­per­vi­sor Lystra Irv­ing was fined $600,000 for mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing $1.5 mil­lion in tax rev­enue pay­ments, which made head­line news. Charged with MiPO and 13 counts of mon­ey laun­der­ing in 2021, Irv­ing en­tered a plea agree­ment with the Of­fice of the DPP at the mag­is­trate’s court. The mat­ter was sent to the High Court be­fore Jus­tice Gail Gon­za­les, who im­posed a $300,000 fine for the mis­be­hav­iour charge and an­oth­er $300,000 to cov­er the 13 charges.

The judge ap­proved a $5,000-a-month pay­ment plan for 120 months for Irv­ing. If Irv­ing de­faults on the pay­ments, she will serve prison time as both fines car­ry a six-year penal­ty.

MiPO charges against cops ex­ten­sive

The list of mis­be­hav­iour charges against po­lice of­fi­cers has been ex­ten­sive—more than two dozen of­fi­cers have been charged with the of­fence in the last five years. Last No­vem­ber, there was up­roar and out­rage by the pub­lic when the cas­es against sev­en of­fi­cers charged with the of­fence were dis­missed.

The of­fi­cers—In­sp Deyal Ram­lakhan, Cpl Sha­heed Khan, PCs Da­vanand Rag­bir, Macai Joseph, Cleon Smith, Ja­son Os­ouna, and SRP PC Ray­on Charles—who were ac­cused in 2023 of ex­tort­ing a group of San­gre Grande busi­ness­men, had their mat­ters dis­missed by Mas­ter Sarah De Sil­va be­cause the po­lice failed to com­ply with the court di­rec­tives, in­clud­ing the time­ly prepa­ra­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of the case.

Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions with the Of­fice of the DPP, the TTPS re-laid the charges against the of­fi­cers. Days lat­er, the na­tion was hit with an­oth­er shock­er when of­fi­cers Kee­nen Williams, Evans Mitchell, Lat­i­fah Leza­ma, Kevin Gomes and Jabari Mc In­tyre were freed of mis­be­hav­iour charges.

The of­fi­cers were ac­cused in 2022 of ac­cept­ing a $30,000 bribe to halt the pros­e­cu­tion of a busi­ness­man. The dis­missal by Mas­ter Sarah De Sil­va fol­lowed re­peat­ed non-com­pli­ance by the pros­e­cu­tion re­gard­ing or­ders giv­en by the court that had to be fol­lowed be­fore the cas­es could pro­ceed to tri­al. The of­fi­cers are now su­ing the State for dam­ages.

In 2016, PC Bri­an Stephens felt the full brunt of the law when he was or­dered to pay a $150,000 fine af­ter he was caught on cam­era steal­ing items be­long­ing to air­line pas­sen­gers as he searched through their lug­gage at the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

In ad­di­tion to the fine, Stephens was al­so placed on a bond in the sum of $50,000 to be on good be­hav­iour for five years by Jus­tice Gillian Lucky. “The mes­sage has to be sent to per­sons who hold po­si­tions of trust that there are se­ri­ous con­se­quences for a breach of that trust. Po­lice have con­sid­er­able pow­ers, and you used this pow­er for self-prof­it,” Lucky told Stephens.