It’s been four years since the police Force Orders informed members of the constabulary that Claudia Cunningham was no longer a cop. But Cunningham is still baffled, given that she has not yet, she said, received her Certificate of Discharge, required under the Police Services Regulation (Chapter 1, appendix 1:14).

But even more puzzling for Cunningham, is the roller coaster nightmarish series of events that resulted in her being tried twice on the same charge, even though she was acquitted at the first trial.

“Up to now, I do not understand why I’m not in the Force, and neither do my friends,” Cunningham said in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer. “Right now, somebody from the police force, the Attorney-General’s Office or the judge need to explain to me how you can be charged, acquitted, and then recharged for the same offence.”

Having joined the police force on March 12, 1993, Cunningham was five years in the job when her troubles started on an otherwise normal day in St Elizabeth.

“This day in question I was not feeling well,” she related. “I was also off duty and decided to visit my grandmother. I got a ride from a friend, who stopped at his aunt’s house. I asked to use the bathroom, so I gave my service firearm to my friend to hold, because I did not want to leave it in the car unattended.”

Several minutes later, she said, a police patrol vehicle arrived at the house and searched her and her male friend.

“I told the officers that I was a cop, and told them that my service firearm was in the custody of my friend,” she recalled.

She said when she asked the reason for the search, the police said that “a report was made, that the gun was used to hit someone, and the person reported the matter to the Pedro Plains police”.

Her friend was arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, and assault at common law.

He was locked up, but she was not charged.

Statements were collected, but she said the divisional office at Black River was bypassed by the investigating officer, and the matter reported directly to the police commissioner’s office which, at the time, was occupied by Francis Forbes.

“Commissioner Francis Forbes ordered that a report be placed on his desk immediately,” said Cunningham. “The file was sent to the DPP’s office, and it was his ruling that I should be charged for the first trial. The charge was for aiding and abetting illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.”

She was suspended during the period.

After nearly a year, the case was dismissed for want of evidence. The man whom she was alleged to have aided and abetted was also acquitted and she was reinstated with full benefits in 1999.

On her return to the police force, Cunningham said she was transferred to the Kingston Eastern Division where she became a member of a special operations team led by Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams.

But trouble was looming again. Cunningham was soon summoned by the Internal Affairs (IA) Division.

“The IA officer claimed that he did not know who put the file on his desk, but said he was instructed to take me back to court for the previously dismissed charge. I started to cry, because I’m like, ‘a wha dis?’. Dis nuh done wid aready,” she said.

“No disciplinary action was taken against me between 2000 and 2002 during this second charge and trial. I was also working full time.”

The late Earl Wright, attorney-at-law, represented her at the two trials. However, like the first case, no witnesses turned up, and this time Cunningham said she noticed one difference.

“The gun was not brought back as exhibit for the second trial,” she said, and “somewhere in the process, assault at common law was dropped from the original charge.”

Despite the absence of witnesses, and on the advice of her lawyer, she pleaded guilty, and so did her friend.

Both were convicted – her friend for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, and Cunningham for aiding and abetting illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

Senior police officials familiar with the case have termed it “deliberate double jeopardy”, saying the stage was set for Cunningham to be charged a second time when the acquittal record of the first trial disappeared.

One senior police officer who did not want to be named said he believed Cunningham’s only sin was having arrested more than 300 drug offenders, but he refused to elaborate.

The Force Orders, the constabulary’s monthly communiqué, of April 3, 2003 reports Cunningham as being dismissed on August 20, 2002, although, she said, she was still a member of the police force and was in court on August 21 that same year.

Cunningham said that when the circumstances of the case were presented to present Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas by former Public Defender Howard Hamilton, Thomas was baffled as to what transpired, particularly her re-arrest on the same charge after the acquittal and the absence of any record of the acquittal.

Attempts to get a response from Thomas yielded no fruit.

Cunningham said she decided to go public after seeking redress from all agencies and individuals she believes can assist her.

Hamilton took her case to Commissioner Thomas, who was the deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime at the time when Cunningham was charged.

Hamilton also pleaded her case before the former governor-general, Sir Howard Cooke, and human rights lobby group Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ).

“She has come to us and we are trying to assist her,” JFJ executive director Dr Carolyn Gomes told the Sunday Observer yesterday. “There are some specific areas of concern with respect to documentation, so we are trying to get as much details as we can.”

Police Federation delegate Corporal Rohan James said Hamilton had expressed annoyance at the entire matter, and as a result of the case “commented publicly that he should be given the autonomy to take matters to court”.

The Police Federation represents cops from the rank of constable to inspector.

Attorney Delroy Chuck, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party spokesman on Justice, said the case was very troubling.

“She is a police officer. She should know her rights. Why did she plead guilty on the re-charge,” he asked?

Former Police Federation chairman, Inspector Steve Brown has a different recollection of the case. According to Brown, who at the time was a sergeant, Cunningham was not being truthful.

“As far as I can recall, the case was adjourned sine die for want of evidence.” Brown told Sunday Observer.

Sine die means that a case is suspended with no date set for a resumption.

But Brown’s explanation was rejected by Corporal James, who said he has studied the case.

“Cases involving the use of guns are never adjourned sine die,” said James. “There are either convictions or acquittals.”

Cunningham, too, rubbished Brown’s claim, saying that Brown advised her to seek a pardon from the governor-general, following a meeting with Brown and Commissioner Forbes which, she said, she should have attended.

“Brown advised me not to come in the meeting as he would talk to the commissioner on my behalf,” said Cunningham. “He emerged from the meeting, saying that the commissioner said the second arrest and trial were honest mistakes, and I should write the governor-general asking for a pardon.”

Brown, Cunningham said, helped her draft the letter asking for pardon, which was sent to Sir Howard.

But Brown insisted that it was Cunningham’s guilty plea that ended her career.

Chuck, though, was still puzzled as to how she could have been convicted a second time. “How can she be convicted on a second charge if no new evidence is brought forward?” he asked. “That does not make sense.”

Cunningham, meantime, is adamant that she did nothing wrong and really wants to be reinstated.

“I want my job back,” she said. “I did nothing to be dismissed from the police force.”