State to pay vendor for wrongful imprisonment

ADMINISTRATIVE “bungling” is to be blamed for the reason why vendor Darryl Rampersad was arrested by police, bundled into a marked police vehicle in front his children during the early morning hours and taken into custody for “failing” to pay a fine, which in fact he already had.

Yesterday, Justice Peter Jamadar ordered the State to pay Rampersad, 39, monetary compensation for wrongful imprisonment. But as he left the San Fernando First Civil Court after the judgement, Rampersad told Newsday the judge’s order would in no way compensate his children who were currently undergoing counselling for the traumatic event. Rampersad was fined $700 for illegal vending in January 2001. He appealed the conviction, but the Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence in July that year and ordered him to pay $500, since he had already paid $200 of the fine. But around 1 am on April 25, 2002, four policemen broke into Rampersad’s St Croix, Princes Town home, while he and his four children were asleep. In a constitutional motion filed in the Sub-Registry, San Fernando, Rampersad stated, “I was told that there was a warrant for my arrest. I was arrested in the presence of my children, ages 15, 13, 12 and seven.”

The vendor stated that he told the arresting policemen, his wife was not at home and there was no one to cook for the children. The officers, Rampersad said in his motion, replied that they (the children) would have to “see about themselves.” Rampersad said he was taken into a police vehicle while his children and neighbours watched. Rampersad was released around 2.30 pm that day, after his wife produced the receipt of the fine payment. The motion came up before Justice Jamadar in the First Civil Court, San Fernando. Attorney Sunil Gopaul Gosine argued that the State had not provided any substantial basis for Rampersad’s incarceration. The State was represented by Jenefer Dennis who opposed the motion. She submitted that the fault was not that of the arresting policemen, but the administrative level in the court system. In ruling that the arrest and detention of Rampersad was unconstitutional, Justice Jamadar ordered that damages for the applicant be assessed by a Judge in Chambers.