Lindsay Grant 's letter to Commissioner of Police and Prime Minister over terrorization of Kimberly Ward

11th February, 2010 
M. Austin Williams
Commissioner of Police
Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force
Force Headquarters
Cayon Street
Basseterre, St. Kitts
 
Dear Commissioner,
 
I have been instructed by Ms. Kimberly Ward of Green Tree Housing Project, St. Kitts, Mr. Joel Daniel of Conaree Village, St. Kitts, and Mr. Kashief Daniel, also of Conaree Village, St. Kitts and I act on their behalf. 
 
My clients claim damages for malicious procurement of a search warrant, false arrest, wrongful imprisonment, and trespass to personal property.  It is the intention of my clients to sue for gross violation of their constitutional rights and freedoms perpetrated at the hands of a detail of ten (10) police officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.
 
According to my instructions, my clients recognized three (3) of the police officers as (1.) #222, Sergeant Glenroy Brown, (2.) #167, Corporal Oral Liburd, and (3.) #324, Constable Matthew McGuire.
 
The incident of which my clients complain occurred at the home of Mr. Joel Daniel and of Mr. Kashief Daniel, at which my client, Ms. Kimberly Ward, was a lawful visitor. 
 
My instructions are that in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 7th February 2010, my clients were asleep in Mr. Joel Daniel’s home at Conaree Village, in various states of undress, when, without warning, or lawful excuse, a number of the said police officers burst into a bedroom in the house, surprising my client, Ms. Kimberly Ward, in the nude.   I object in the strongest possible terms to such an invasion of the personal privacy of this young woman.
 
The police officers were heavily armed and were brandishing their assault weaponry in the direction of  my clients.
 
The said police officers then proceeded to wave what appeared to be a rolled-up piece of paper which they claimed to be a search warrant for guns, drugs and ammunition.  They refused repeated requests by my clients to allow them to examine the alleged search warrant. 
 
The police officers involved did not find any guns, drugs or ammunition, for the simple reason that none were there.  However, this did not deter the police officers from seizing and taking into their custody the totally unrelated laptop of my client, Ms. Kimberly Ward, cellular phones of all three (3) of my clients, and the camera and DVD player of my client, Mr. Joel Daniel.
 
In a sordid display of brute force and unjustifiable power, my clients, Mr. Joel Daniel and Mr. Kashief Daniel (the latter of whom is a mere 18 years of age), were handcuffed for no reason, as if they were common criminals. 
 
All three (3) of my clients were taken into custody and taken to the Frigate Bay outpost of the police force, where they were denied their liberty.
 
Mr. Joel Daniel was incarcerated in a holding cell at the outpost.  His young brother, Kashief, was handcuffed to the grillwork above his head in a posture which was calculated to subject him to a form of torture and he was left in that posture, with his hand hoisted above his head, for several hours. 
 
In addition,  the police officers, although they admitted that they did not have a search warrant for the rental car hired by Ms. Kimberly Ward, seized the said car, demanded the keys from Ms. Ward and despite her protestations drove it away in the custody of the police force. 
 
These high-handed acts of police brutality had an unsavoury motive, which was openly revealed to my clients. 
 
Allegedly, the condominium of Prime Minister Douglas at Frigate Bay was broken into, a laptop alleged to be his was stolen, and the police officers claimed that they were carrying out an investigation into the disappearance of the said laptop. 
 
This allegation by the police officers was all the more offensive for the reason that they claimed to be acting under colour of an alleged search warrant for guns, drugs and ammunition. 
 
What is worse, my client, Ms. Ward, enquired what kind of laptop the Prime Minister is alleged to have lost.  One police officer said “an Apple,” whereupon Ms. Ward showed them that her laptop was an HP.  Yet they still seized her HP laptop in their investigation of the disappearance of an “Apple.”
 
Throughout this fiasco, Ms. Ward stoutly relied upon her fundamental rights to freedom from search and seizure of her property and to her rights to personal liberty, to no avail. 
 
My clients were unlawfully detained without being told on what charge they had been taken out of their sleep in the safety and security of their own dwelling house.
 
It is obvious to me that these police officers had an ulterior motive, one which is sinister and indirect.  During the incarceration referred to, the police officers questioned my clients about the recent general elections held on 25th January 2010.  My client, Ms. Ward, was told she was the person who had taken pictures at the polling station in Half Way Tree.
 
It is clear that these police officers were sent on a mission of spite and victimization to harass and intimidate ordinary citizens of this country while they slept in their own beds.  Such a scenario is reminiscent of the stories of the activities of the Gestapo of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and of the KGB of the Stalinist era in Russia . 
 
I view these instructions with alarm for the direction in which this country is being taken.  I demand, Mr. Commissioner, to be advised the names of all of the police officers who were involved in this terrible incident, so that they can be specifically included in any legal proceedings which will arise to vindicate my clients’ rights. 
 
I also demand to be given sight of the alleged search warrant under colour of which these police officers acted.  Finally, I require an apology from the Police Force for the heartless and vindictive treatment meted out to these young people.  This is not a Police State and my clients have instructed me to institute proceedings for the recovery of exemplary damages for the blatant breaches of the Constitution of St. Kitts and Nevis carried out by these police officers.
 
A copy of this letter is also being delivered to the Prime Minister, the Minister of National Security and the Attorney General of St. Kitts and Nevis .
 
The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis must answer for this atrocity, and the Attorney General will have to be sued to represent the Government.  You will hear further from me in due course.  
   
Yours faithfully, 
Lindsay Fitzpatrick Grant, Esq.
Barrister-at-Law 
cc: Honourable Prime Minister
      Honourable Minister of National Security
      Honourable Attorney General