Derk Achong

A so­cial me­dia ac­tivist has filed a law­suit against for­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith for mis­fea­sance in pub­lic of­fice, over an in­ci­dent in which he was in­ter­viewed by po­lice over a so­cial me­dia post re­lat­ed to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the ab­duc­tion and mur­der of Ju­di­cia­ry clerk An­drea Bharatt. 

Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Alan Brizan, of Guaico, San­gre Grande, sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to sue Grif­fith in May, but on­ly filed the law­suit on Wednes­day. 

The dis­pute stems from a post that Brizan, a for­mer news­pa­per car­toon­ist and graph­ic artist, made on his Face­book page on Feb­ru­ary 9.

In the post, Brizan not­ed that Bharatt was dead, two sus­pects de­tained by po­lice were bru­tal­ly killed, and that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in­clud­ing Grif­fith were dis­tort­ing the facts that were be­ing dis­sem­i­nat­ed to the pub­lic.

With­in 10 min­utes of the post, Grif­fith al­leged re­spond­ed via di­rect mes­sage and ques­tioned Brizan over whether he had in­for­ma­tion or ev­i­dence of a cov­er-up and whether he would be will­ing to make an of­fi­cial re­port. 

A short while lat­er, Grif­fith al­leged­ly post­ed on Brizan’s pub­lic wall ad­vis­ing Brizan that he should pro­vide ev­i­dence to jus­ti­fy his ac­cu­sa­tions.

Brizan even­tu­al­ly re­spond­ed via di­rect mes­sage by say­ing that he sup­ports fact-find­ing in sup­port of po­lice in­for­ma­tion and that he lived in San­gre Grande.

Brizan claims that Grif­fith re­spond­ed by com­plain­ing that he (Brizan) had claimed that Grif­fith dis­tort­ed facts on the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and that he (Grif­fith) would con­sid­er bring­ing a defama­tion law­suit.

Grif­fith al­so claimed to have re­layed Brizan’s post to the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA), who was con­duct­ing an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Brizan then par­tial­ly edit­ed his post in re­la­tion to the dis­tor­tion of the facts to state that there were sig­nif­i­cant con­tra­dic­tions in the in­for­ma­tion con­cern­ing the facts of the case. He al­so thanked Grif­fith for his con­tri­bu­tion.

Brizan was then con­tact­ed on his cell­phone by a po­lice of­fi­cer, who ex­pressed in­ter­est in in­ter­view­ing him.

Brizan claimed that he ac­ced­ed to the re­quest as he felt afraid that he would be charged with wast­ing po­lice time.

Brizan claimed that he re­peat­ed­ly de­nied that he had any in­for­ma­tion in re­la­tion to Bharath’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion and sug­gest­ed that the in­ter­view be con­duct­ed over the phone.

The of­fi­cer claimed that he would pre­fer a phys­i­cal in­ter­view and Brizan pro­vid­ed his ad­dress.

The of­fi­cers came to his home and in­ter­viewed him for three hours in his wife’s pres­ence.

He claimed that af­ter the in­ter­view was com­plet­ed, he cor­rect­ed and signed a tran­script.

He ad­mit­ted that since the in­ter­view he was not con­tact­ed by the of­fi­cers.

In the law­suit, Brizan is claim­ing that the in­ter­view con­sti­tut­ed false im­pris­on­ment. 

“The Com­mis­sion­er, through his agents In­spec­tor Sil­van and Po­lice Of­fi­cer Adri­an Smith, in­ten­tion­al­ly caused the Claimant to be un­law­ful­ly de­tained for ap­prox­i­mate­ly three hours, where there was no rea­son­able and prob­a­ble cause for the Claimant’s de­ten­tion,” his lawyers said, as they claimed that Grif­fith was ma­li­cious in ini­ti­at­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. 

They al­so claimed that Grif­fith’s ac­tion breached their client’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right to free­dom of thought and ex­pres­sion. 

“As a re­sult of the tres­pass to his per­son, the breach of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and the mis­fea­sance in pub­lic of­fice the Claimant has suf­fered loss of his lib­er­ty, in­jury to his feel­ings, in­jury to his prop­er sense of dig­ni­ty and pride, men­tal suf­fer­ing, dis­grace, hu­mil­i­a­tion and loss of so­cial sta­tus,” they said. 

Through the law­suit, Brizan is seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for the al­leged breach­es and a de­c­la­ra­tion that his con­sti­tu­tion­al right was in­fringed. 

Brizan is al­so be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Christophe Ro­driguez, and Joash Hug­gins and Ki­maa­da Ot­t­ley.