PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Roger Gaspard SC, Saturday said there is “no realistic prospect” of Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher being convicted for the offense of misbehavior in public office “or for any other offense.”
In a four-page statement, Gaspard said “it would be legally wrong to proceed further” into the charges against the top cop, whose tenure ends on May 15 after two previous extensions in 2023 and 2024.
“I am further fortified in my conviction since the evidence has not unearthed any improper motive, consideration of quid pro quo which might have unlawfully undergirded the COP’s issuance of the subject permit,” Gaspard said.
Harewood-Christopher was arrested on January 30 at her office as investigations continue into the importation of two sniper rifles for the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
A High Court judge is due to give a ruling in the matter involving the suspended Police Commissioner. She has challenged the authority of the Police Service Commission (PSC) to suspend her as investigations continue into the procurement of the sniper rifles.
Harewood-Christopher was granted leave to challenge the legality of her suspension on February 5. Still, she failed to get the judge to keep the office vacant until his ruling. Parliament has since approved the appointment of Junior Benjamin, Deputy Commissioner of Police, to act in the position.
In February, Justice Sieuchand had given the embattled top cop permission to challenge the PSC after her lawyers had sought a judicial review of the PSC’s decision to have her “cease to report for duty and cease to discharge the duties of Commissioner of Police”‘
The balance of convenience does not favor granting this order and militates against it. Granting this relief would create a vacancy in the constitutional office charged with the overall management and responsibility of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” the judge said after hearing arguments for nearly four hours.
He said allowing such a void to persist cannot, in his view, be justified where the present circumstances are such that the country is plagued with high levels of reported serious crime and was, at the time, under a state of emergence (SoE).
Harewood-Christopher was released from police custody in late January after being questioned in connection with the illegal procurement of high-powered rifles.
Her lawyers had sent a pre-action protocol letter to the PSC chairman, Dr Wendell Wallace, giving a February 4 deadline to face judicial review proceedings.
In her application for judicial review, Harewood-Christopher’s lawyers sought an injunction to keep the office of commissioner vacant until the court ruled on her challenge.
“Protect my right to my office, which I have lost because of (the PSC’s) irregularities…Justice should not turn its face against me,” said Senior Counsel Pamela Elder.
Elder told the High Court that the PSC acted without sufficient evidence and relied solely on the Deputy Commissioner of Police’s (DCP) assertion that Harewood-Christopher had been arrested. She questioned the legal basis for the suspension.
In his statement, Gaspard said, “By way of context, the allegation of misconduct in public office stemmed from the issuance of a firearm import permit to a firearm dealer for the importation into Trinidad and Tobago of two high-powered rifles together with accessories, inclusive of sound suppressors.”
He said the guns and accessories could not have entered the country “legally” without the Commissioner of Police granting a firearm import permit.
‘The Commissioner of Police is the sole authority for granting such a permit under the Firearms Act…Further, based on my evidence, the COP, Ms. Erla Christopher, granted that permit.”
Gaspard said that she was entitled to do so under the Firearms Act “but not before satisfying herself that the applicant had a good reason for importing, purchasing acquiring or having on his possession these firearms and accessories.”
Gaspard said that the applicant “can be permitted to have in his possession those items without danger to the public’s safety or public peace and that the applicant was not a person whom the COP would have had reason to believe to be of intemperate habits or unsound mind or to be for any reason unfit to be entrusted with such firearms.”
The DPP said that against this background, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS)began its investigation to determine whether Harewood-Christopher “had wilfully neglected to perform her duty and /or whether the COP had wilfully misconducted herself in the performance of her duty in issuing the Firearm Import Permit.”
Gaspard said that the TTPS had “ably presented to me a substantial file containing evidence.” In light of the serious questions that that evidence has raised concerning the COP’s performance of her due diligence functions, I think that while this, coupled with her granting of the firearm import permit, was sufficient to lead to her arrest as a suspect, the evidence presented does not reach the required threshold to lead to a criminal charge.
“Of course, it is trite law that an arrest should not and does not necessarily lead to a charge,” Gaspard said, adding, “In this matter, on the evidence, I am of the view that there is no realistic prospect of a conviction for the offense of misbehavior in public office or any other offense, and accordingly it would be legally wrong to proceed further.”
He said he wanted to thank the police investigators “for their assiduity and all relevant parties, including the public, for their patience.”
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