Teacher wants name cleared after wrongful arrest

Aug 10, 2013 News

A school teacher is seeking to have his name cleared after being wrongfully arrested by a member of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) in a very embarrassing public altercation yesterday morning.
Recounting the ordeal, Niall Stanton said that he had not long before dropped off his wife, Sherelyn Stanton, at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where she works before heading to Forgarty’s at Water Street, to purchase two cards. He recalled that the store opened at around 08:30 hours. As such, he parked his car opposite the store in the vicinity of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry.
He said that after making his purchase he headed back to his car.

Niall Stanton and his wife Sherelyn

“I opened the car, wind down the windows and throw the cards in the back, start the car and was about to reverse, when I observed a suspicious-looking man dressed in a shirt-jac and long pants approaching my (driver’s) side of the car in a funny manner. He just come up to me and say ‘is you’,” the 29-year-old Stanton recounted.
He said the man then reached for the car keys in order to turn off the vehicle which was soon restarted by Stanton who put the car in gear in order to escape the intruder.
“I run the car into the drain, push open the door and start hollering thief. I run into the bank still hollering thief, thief…Everybody in the bank was just looking at me like I mad or something,” Stanton said.
He was soon upbraided by the Bank Manager for the ruckus, which prompted the pursuing stranger to display a badge identifying himself as a CANU Officer. During this time, Stanton said that he was also identifying himself as a school teacher at the Mercy Wings Vocational Centre and even informing whoever would listen that his wife is a doctor at the GPHC.
Stanton told this publication that he decided to telephone his wife to inform her of the situation, but was advised not to use his cellular phone in the bank. But even as he attempted to leave the bank, the CANU officer held onto him.
Before long the rank was joined by a few other officers who arrived in a vehicle.
“They handcuff me, take away my phone, and while they were doing that I was trying to tell them I just buy my car and how I have to be the best man at my friend’s wedding tomorrow (today)…I kept asking them to please check my documents…” Stanton said.
However, he was placed inside the vehicle even as he continued to appeal to the officers to grant him permission to call his wife.
Stanton would soon learn that he became the target of the CANU officers because he was wearing a red T-Shirt and short black pants. He disclosed that he was told that a woman had earlier gone to the Guyana Post Office Corporation to post a package which contained a quantity of an illicit substance and opted to inform the ranks that she was taken there by a man in the clothing described. She however related that the vehicle the man dropped her off in was white. However, Stanton is the owner of a blue vehicle.
“They said that they arrested me because my clothing fit the description that she gave to them,” said Stanton, who informed that the woman was good enough to admit that he was not the man who dropped her off.
“I was in tears when she said that…I was so thankful, because right away they loose the handcuff…” He was told too that the decision to arrest him was a “rash one.”
Stanton was then able to call his wife and inform her of his location, but was in too much of an emotional state to relate the incident to her. However, the officer who had approached him initially was only too willing to explain. In fact all of the officers involved have been apologetic, as was a senior officer, after an official complaint was filed by Stanton.
However, Stanton is of the view that CANU must seek to train its officers in such a way that they undertake their duties in a more professional manner.
“If I knew he was an officer I would have cooperated, because I know I don’t have any drugs. I didn’t do anything illegal. If they are going to carry out an arrest on somebody they need to do it in an appropriate manner…If I was a heart patient or reverse the car into another vehicle what then?” asked Stanton who says he is merely seeking to ensure that his name is cleared.