Call for cops to be disciplined

Martie Garnes, the Convenor of the Criminal Law Committee of the Barbados Bar Association, has condemned the behaviour of the two police officers who were part of the criminal case involving attorney Lani Daisley and is calling for police officers engaged in breaking the law to be disciplined for their actions, even if it means termination from the Barbados Police Service.

Speaking to this newspaper about the just concluded matter in which Daisley was awarded $373 904 after a judge determined that two police officers had concocted criminal charges against her, Garnes said this was just one among several matters involving police officers who had run afoul of the law. 

Daisley had a recording device which captured the cops conspiring to bring the charges against her.

Stressing that the Criminal Law Committee was not speaking out because a lawyer was involved, Garnes said they were confronted with several matters where police had engaged in serious wrong-doing but faced no disciplinary action.

He charged that what was “even more egregious and troublesome” was that one of the officers in the Daisley matter had two promotions and was now a station sergeant. The other officer has since resigned from the Police Service.

“So is it that we are now rewarding this type of behaviour?” the attorney asked. “Just like with any other job, if you have a police officer or an employee who is breaching certain rules, the first thing you do, you look to legally and lawfully get rid of them if it is that the actions are so egregious that it warrants termination on the spot. If this does not, I don’t know what will amount to lawful termination,” he said.

The convenor, who was accompanied by committee member Shadia Simpson, said the Daisley case
“is of particular importance in Barbados right now because it really demonstrates, based on the unique
facts of that case, had it not been for her using that audio device in a pen, this would have turned out very, very differently because we now have concrete evidence showing that police officers would have collaborated and would have lied under oath . . .  They would have arrested her on these terms ‘because she getting on my nerves now’.

“As far as I’m aware, that is not a reason to arrest someone . . . but then, more importantly, you can hear one of the officers saying, ‘So how we gine work it is that customs tell the woman to leave, she won’t leave.’ 

“Luckily for her, she had this pen. If she did not have this pen, it would be the police officers’ word versus
Ms Daisley’s word.”

Simpson said this was the reason why defence lawyers usually advised the jury “do not take the angelic or the proverbial angelic halo that the police officers come with”.

Garnes gave other instances of what he perceived to be police wrong-doing.

He highlighted a matter involving Rasheed King, who he said was badly beaten by police officers and was photographed by his attorney at the police station, bloody and bruised. That attorney then publicised
the matter.

“What happened was within a week or two later, they (police) then posted a notice saying that attorneys
are no longer allowed to carry cell phones in the rooms. So you’re preventing us now from reporting these type of things, rather than trying to stop the very behaviour that caused it in the first place. 

“So you’re not going to the root of the issue. It’s almost as if you’re trying to enable the persons
who are doing these type of things.”

He said there was another matter involving a man named Rackesh Grant ,who was acquitted of rape after the defence brought a handwriting expert who determined that the signature in the police officer’s notebook of Grant confessing to the crime was not that of the man, but that of the police officer.

Garnes said the attorney had since written the Commissioner of Police on this matter, requesting disciplinary action be brought against the cop but to date there has been no response.

Simpson, who was also involved in a headline-making matter this year where a female police officer
 was seen on video admitting to beating her client, who was in custody, and using profanity and threats towards the man, said she had brought a private prosecution case against the officer but had not been able to have her served as she was still on sick leave. She said: “There was no official statement from the Commissioner of Police in respect to the matter to this date. 

“There was no disciplinary actions lodged from the last time we checked. So it just seems to be another incident in the forest.” 

The attorneys further expressed concern about police denying lawyers access to their clients.

Pointing out that it was a constitutional right for people in custody to request an attorney, Garnes said: “Quite frankly, I think that this is most disturbing.”

Simpson stated: “While I applaud the decision that was recently given in the case with attorney Lani Daisley, I believe that that’s the exception and not the rule in Barbados. She was fortunate to have this audio device that she could have compelling evidence to put before the court, but we have countless stories and accounts from clients in terms of the kind of treatment that they have received whilst in police custody, or even just in their interactions with police.

“And if you aren’t fortunate to have it recorded on a video or audio device, then it puts you in a position where it’s really your word against the police’s . . . 

“So the truth is that I am really happy [about] the decision, but, by the same token, I don’t think it will set a precedent in terms of how these matters are dealt with in court.”

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