PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC –Retired Appeal Court judge, Stanley John, says he has been informed that a file at the center of a multi-million dollar (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) compensation to nine men acquitted of the murder of businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman in 2016, has been found.
Last week, John was appointed as the lead investigator into the matter as the state seeks to determine how it could not file a defense in a case in which it was ordered to compensate the nine men TT$2.1 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) each.
Last week, Attorney General Reginald Armour told a news conference that a necessary file that would have alerted the Office of the Attorney General to the matter “had disappeared” even though the relevant department had received it.
In a statement, the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs quoted Justice John as saying that “in my capacity as Lead Investigator,” he had been informed on Monday evening by the acting Solicitor General “that the file in question” had been handed over to her on Monday.
“I have immediately instructed the Solicitor General (Ag) to secure that file for collection by the Investigative Team. The re-appearance of this file forms part of this continuing investigation,” the statement added.
When he announced the team to investigate the disappearance of the file, Armour told reporters that
While he is not seeking to pass the buck, what occurred is “grievous, and it must never be allowed to happen again.”
He has promised that “as soon as I have had the investigation results, which I have ordered, I will be accounting further to the citizenry fully and transparently.”
But the lawyers, including former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, representing nine men, dismissed as a “joke” Armour’s statement regarding the missing file, adding, “we can say, without fear of contradiction by anyone, that the facts will easily demonstrate that the Ministry of the Attorney General, was kept fully abreast of this case at every step of the litigation.”
The Office of the Attorney General has announced that former Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) judge Rolston Nelson, SC, had been appointed to advise the state on its next move regarding the multi-million dollar judgment.
Last week, Master Martha Alexander awarded to the nine men TT$19,168,917.56 for malicious prosecution and exemplary damages; costs amounting to $200,917.56; and the cost of an expert witness of $68,000, making it perhaps the most significant award in Trinidad and Tobago’s judicial history.
Interest will be added to the damages for each man, at a rate of 2.5 percent, from May 29, 2020, to January 30, this year.
Naipaul-Coolman, 52, the former chief executive of the supermarket chain Naipaul’s Xtra Foods, was kidnapped from the driveway of her residence in Lange Park, Chaguanas, in west-central Trinidad, on the night of December 19, 2016. Her body was never found. Her kidnappers had demanded a three million dollar ransom for her release.
The nine men – Shervon Peters, Devon Peters, Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, Keida Garcia, Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimmingham, and Antonio Charles – were among ten persons who had gone on trial in 2016 for Naipaul-Coolman’s murder.
The nine men had filed a malicious prosecution claim in May 2020, which the state did not defend, despite having entered an appearance.
and then 