RM raps cop for arresting man who owed him $1,000
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – Senior St Catherine resident magistrate Lorna Errar-Gayle on Thursday chastised a policeman for allegedly arresting a man who owed him $1,000 and holding him in custody for five days without charge.
The magistrate described the policeman’s action as unprofessional behaviour and called for the intervention of Superintendent Harry Daley, the officer in charge of St Catherine North (Spanish Town)..
“This must not be allowed to happen, it cannot happen. No policeman has the right to dispense his own justice,” RM Errar-Gayle said in the Spanish Town Criminal Court Thursday after she admonished and discharged Evel Anderson, 30, a carpenter of St Jago Heights, on a fraudulent conversion charge.
“How can a policeman who is himself the complainant in a case carry out his own arrest, then on top of it keep this man locked up in custody for five days without charging him? Is this how the police operate now?” she asked.
Allegations outlined to the court by a detective corporal were that in December 2006, the policeman, who was not in court, gave Anderson $1,000 to purchase material and build a bathroom door to be installed before Christmas.
But Anderson reneged on his promise and the cop made several unsuccessful requests that his money be returned.
On Saturday, January, 6, the policeman arrested Anderson, locked him in jail for five days before a detective corporal charged him with fraudulent conversion of the $1,000.
The judge was further enraged when she heard that the complainant was not in court.
“I want to know how that station (Spanish Town) is run. Because you are a policeman you go and arrest this man because you say him no pay you $1,000. How can you keep a man in custody for five days and no charge just because you name police? How you can do that? Are you the one dispensing justice?” questioned the magistrate. It was then that she directed that a letter be sent to Daley to come to court and explain the action of the cop.
She then discharged Anderson. “Admonished and discharged. You may go, sir.”
Anderson stood in the prisoner’s dock gazing at the resident magistrate in amazement that she had discharged him. “You may go, sir,” Errar-Gayle repeated softly.
