PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Roger Gaspard SC, Saturday stated there may be “no practical prospect” of Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher being convicted for the offense of misbehavior in public workplace “or for some other offense.”
In a four-page assertion, Gaspard stated “it could be legally fallacious to proceed additional” into the costs towards the highest cop, whose tenure ends on Could 15 after two earlier extensions in 2023 and 2024.
“I’m additional fortified in my conviction because the proof has not unearthed any improper motive, consideration of quid professional quo which could have unlawfully undergirded the COP’s issuance of the topic allow,” Gaspard stated.
Harewood-Christopher was arrested on January 30 at her workplace as investigations proceed into the importation of two sniper rifles for the Strategic Providers Company (SSA).
A Excessive Courtroom decide is because of give a ruling within the matter involving the suspended Police Commissioner. She has challenged the authority of the Police Service Fee (PSC) to droop her as investigations proceed into the procurement of the sniper rifles.
Harewood-Christopher was granted depart to problem the legality of her suspension on February 5. Nonetheless, she did not get the decide to maintain the workplace vacant till his ruling. Parliament has since accredited the appointment of Junior Benjamin, Deputy Commissioner of Police, to behave within the place.
In February, Justice Sieuchand had given the embattled prime cop permission to problem the PSC after her legal professionals had sought a judicial evaluate of the PSC’s choice to have her “stop to report for obligation and stop to discharge the duties of Commissioner of Police”‘
The steadiness of comfort doesn’t favor granting this order and militates towards it. Granting this reduction would create a emptiness within the constitutional workplace charged with the general administration and duty of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” the decide stated after listening to arguments for almost 4 hours.
He stated permitting such a void to persist can not, in his view, be justified the place the current circumstances are such that the nation is plagued with excessive ranges of reported critical crime and was, on the time, underneath a state of emergence (SoE).
Harewood-Christopher was launched from police custody in late January after being questioned in reference to the unlawful procurement of high-powered rifles.
Her legal professionals had despatched a pre-action protocol letter to the PSC chairman, Dr Wendell Wallace, giving a February 4 deadline to face judicial evaluate proceedings.
In her utility for judicial evaluate, Harewood-Christopher’s legal professionals sought an injunction to maintain the workplace of commissioner vacant till the court docket dominated on her problem.
“Shield my proper to my workplace, which I’ve misplaced due to (the PSC’s) irregularities…Justice shouldn’t flip its face towards me,” stated Senior Counsel Pamela Elder.
Elder advised the Excessive Courtroom that the PSC acted with out adequate proof and relied solely on the Deputy Commissioner of Police’s (DCP) assertion that Harewood-Christopher had been arrested. She questioned the authorized foundation for the suspension.
In his assertion, Gaspard stated, “By the use of context, the allegation of misconduct in public workplace stemmed from the issuance of a firearm import allow to a firearm seller for the importation into Trinidad and Tobago of two high-powered rifles along with equipment, inclusive of sound suppressors.”
He stated the weapons and equipment couldn’t have entered the nation “legally” with out the Commissioner of Police granting a firearm import allow.
‘The Commissioner of Police is the only authority for granting such a allow underneath the Firearms Act…Additional, based mostly on my proof, the COP, Ms. Erla Christopher, granted that let.”
Gaspard stated that she was entitled to take action underneath the Firearms Act “however not earlier than satisfying herself that the applicant had a great motive for importing, buying buying or having on his possession these firearms and equipment.”
Gaspard stated that the applicant “will be permitted to have in his possession these objects with out hazard to the general public’s security or public peace and that the applicant was not an individual whom the COP would have had motive to consider to be of intemperate habits or unsound thoughts or to be for any motive unfit to be entrusted with such firearms.”
The DPP stated that towards this background, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS)started its investigation to find out whether or not Harewood-Christopher “had wilfully uncared for to carry out her obligation and /or whether or not the COP had wilfully misconducted herself within the efficiency of her obligation in issuing the Firearm Import Allow.”
Gaspard stated that the TTPS had “ably introduced to me a considerable file containing proof.” In gentle of the intense questions that that proof has raised in regards to the COP’s efficiency of her due diligence capabilities, I believe that whereas this, coupled along with her granting of the firearm import allow, was adequate to result in her arrest as a suspect, the proof introduced doesn’t attain the required threshold to result in a prison cost.
“In fact, it’s trite legislation that an arrest shouldn’t and doesn’t essentially result in a cost,” Gaspard stated, including, “On this matter, on the proof, I’m of the view that there isn’t a practical prospect of a conviction for the offense of misbehavior in public workplace or some other offense, and accordingly it could be legally fallacious to proceed additional.”
He stated he needed to thank the police investigators “for his or her assiduity and all related events, together with the general public, for his or her persistence.”
