‘Innocent right through’

J.D. Brown* visited the Oracabessa Police Station in St Mary on the night of July 8, 2016, to deliver food for a relative in custody.

He chatted with the cops on duty at the time and described them as “friendly” during the 15 minutes he spent at the station.

But minutes after he returned home, Brown got a phone call that painted a different picture of those same cops, according to an affidavit he filed in court.

The affidavit formed part of a lawsuit he filed against the Government and four cops for wrongful imprisonment and breaches of his constitutional rights.

The Attorney General’s Chambers, which represented the Government, did not file a defence to the lawsuit.

Brown recounted that the female cop on the other end of the line, identified in court documents as Constable Stephanie Harrison, enquired if he was “the one who just took the food and drink to the Oracabessa Police Station”?

Brown said he noticed that the tone in her voice became “angry and aggressive” after he confirmed that it was him, but the call was accidentally disconnected.

When he called back the phone number, a male cop answered and angrily accused him of stealing Harrison’s cell phone from the police station and warned that they would “send a patrol vehicle fi me” and “throw me in jail” if he did not return the device, Brown claimed.

He returned to the station about 10:20 p.m. on the same day and claimed that he was immediately surrounded by Harrison and three other cops, identified in court documents as constables Rayon Anderson, Oliver Brown and Bailey (whose first name was omitted).

Brown claimed the cops again accused him of stealing Harrison’s phone and became aggressive and behaved “in a very intimidating manner” even as he protested that he was innocent.

“I was immediately grabbed roughly and searched by the police officers. When they did not find the mobile phone, I was then draped up and carried to a filthy and smelly holding area of the police station and told that I would be staying there until I told them what happened to Woman Constable Stephanie Harrison’s phone,” he claimed.

‘Rigorously’ interrogated

Brown claimed that the four cops and another colleague again surrounded him inside the holding area and “rigorously” interrogated and “threatened” him.

“They called me a dutty thief and that I was ‘dry eye’ for taking the phone. At one stage, one of the officers took a baton and swung it violently in the direction of my face. He stopped the baton only a couple inches from my face,” he claimed.

He charged that the humiliating and embarrassing actions of the cops happened in full view of other people at the station, including his girlfriend, who had accompanied him there, and detainees inside the lock-up.

Brown claimed that during the four-and-a-half-hour ordeal the cops told him they could keep him in custody as long as they wanted and that “I would be staying in the lock-up until I confessed to them what I did with the mobile phone”.

He said that the “abuse, interrogation and humiliation” continued until about 3:50 a.m. the next day, when Bailey told him he was “giving me the benefit of the doubt” and would let me go home “for now”.

Hours later, while he was at home, Brown’s telephone rang, he recounted.

“It was Woman Constable Stephanie Harrison on the line. She told me that they found her mobile phone and that she wanted to apologise for the whole incident,” he claimed.

Brown charged that during the 270-minute ordeal, he was never cautioned by the police or informed that he had the right to contact an attorney.

“As a result of this incident, I have been left emotionally and mentally scarred for life. Also, as a result of this incident, I have lost faith and trust in the Jamaican police,” he said in the affidavit.

At the end of the lawsuit recently, a Supreme Court judge ordered the Government to pay Brown a total of $1.5 million in damages.

A breakdown of the award showed that $600,000 was for breaches of his constitutional rights with interest to be calculated at three per cent annually from December 2016 when the lawsuit was filed.

He was also awarded $200,000 for false imprisonment and $250,000 for assault.

Obika Gordon, the attorney from the law firm Frater, Ennis & Gordon, which represented Brown, explained that the award for false imprisonment was based on the four and a half hours he was in the custody of the police.

Further, Gordon said the award for assault was “not so high” because Brown was not physically assaulted.

“But you don’t have to be touched to be assaulted. Once somebody puts you in reasonable apprehension of fear, then you have been assaulted,” he explained.

Brown was critical of the judicial system, the police, and what he described as the insufficient amount awarded to him.

“Dem should a gi me more money. Remember say a dem wrong me totally, y’know. Mi did innocent right through,” he said during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

Brown said he now lives in fear of policemen and women, noting that he still encounters the same cops in the community.

“So me can’t stay one place. This minute, me deh a me mother. This minute, me deh a me brother. This minute, me deh deh so. Me still fear,” he said.

*Name changed to protect identity.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com