Roxanne Myers awarded $2M for wrongful arrest

Aug 10, 2024 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

…AG files notice of appeal

Kaieteur News – Former Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Roxanne Myers was on Friday awarded $2 Million in compensatory damages for wrongful arrest and detention.

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC

The ruling was handed down by High Court Judge Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall. According to reports, back on October 6, 2020, Myers turned herself in at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in the company of her lawyer Nigel Hughes, after the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had issued a wanted bulletin for her questioning in relation to the investigation into the alleged fraud of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.

Former Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Roxanne Myers

Hughes had told this newspaper that when his client arrived at the CID she was arrested and exercised her right to remain silent when the allegation of obstructing justice was put to her. She was reportedly taken into a room where a video recording interview was conducted. Thereafter, the lawyer said that his client was then placed in a vehicle and taken to the Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara, where she was put in a cell and detained until October 9, 2020.

Following the ordeal, Myers through her lawyers had initiated a civil case seeking damages for her arrest.

The judge found that the arrest and detention was unlawful and a contravention of Myers’s fundamental right under Article 139 of the Constitution of Guyana. While the judge awarded compensatory damages, she did not award exemplary damages.

Moreover, on Friday afternoon the Attorney General Chambers issued a document disclosing that the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC has filed a notice of appeal of Justice Morris-Ramlall’s ruling.

According to the document, the grounds for appeal inter alia, is that the judge erred in law finding that there was no reasonable basis to arrest and detain Myers, that the judge erred when she held that the evidence before her did not support any reasonable basis for the arrest and detention of the former GECOM official.

The AG is arguing that the judge erred by concluding that Myers’ refusal to cooperate with the police could not be seen as perverting the course of justice.

“…judge erred when she held that (Myers’) refusal to answer questions about the Guyana Elections Commission’s Statement of Polls from March 2020 elections could not be seen as perverting the course of justice,” it was further stated.

As it relates to the orders being sought, the AG is seeking to set aside part of the decision by Justice Morris-Ramlall; that Myers pays cost and any other order that the court may deem fit.

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Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Guyana, High Court Judge Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, investigation, Nigel Hughes

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