ACTING Attorney General Stuart Young is launching an investigation into why the State did not defend a multi-million dollar claim by nine former murder accused.
Nine men who were accused for the murder of businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-
Charged for murder in their teens and early twenties, brothers Shervon and Devon Peters, another brother Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, brothers Keida and Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimmingham and Antonio Charles were declared free of murder and kidnapping six years ago.
They are expected to receive $2.1 million each in compensation.
A release on Tuesday by the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs stated that Young, who is acting for substantive AG Reginald Armour, who is out of the country on official business, ” has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the State’s failure to file a Defence in a civil action claiming malicious prosecution which was brought by nine former accused who were charged and subject to a criminal trial for the kidnapping and murder of businesswoman, Vindra Naipaul-Coolman.”
Gloster was murdered in 2021 in a drive-by shooting. His father was allowed to continue to pursue the case on his behalf.
The order was made by High Court Master Martha Alexander on Monday.
The group had filed the lawsuit almost four years after they were freed of the charges in late May 2016.
They spent almost a decade in remand prison.
Failure of the Office of the Attorney General to defend the case allowed the group’s legal team, led by Anand Ramlogan SC, to successfully obtain a default judgement against it in January 2021.
Attorneys Renuka Rambhajan, Ganesh Saroop and Natasha Bisram, also represented the men.
Representing the AG’s Office were Karen Reid-Ballantyne and Amrita Ramsook.
In giving her judgement, Alexander said, “The present matter, therefore, was a substantial one that the defendant chose neither to defend nor to call any evidence, save to appear at the assessment to be heard on quantum.”
In her determination of the appropriate compensation for the men, Alexander considered the evidence of clinical psychologist Isolde Ghent-Garcia.
Ghent-Garcia conducted detailed psychological assessments on all the men with the exception of Gloster.
According to Ghent-Garcia’s reports, it was stated that all eight men suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), major depression and generalised anxiety, a direct consequence of them spending almost a decade on remand before being freed.
The condition affected the men differently with some being more severely affected.
The suggestion was made to have each of the men undergo treatment to address their psychological issues which would cost $165,000 each.
The State was ordered to pay $100,000 in exemplary damages for the unconstitutional actions of the prison officers who supervised the group while they were on remand facing horrendous prison conditions.
The State also has to pay $68,000 for Ghent-Garcia’s expert evidence and the $200,000 in legal fees for the case.
Alexander ordered the State to pay interest on the compensation at a rate of two and a half per cent per annum from when the case was filed in 2020.
She rejected submissions from the Office of the Attorney General that Ghent-Garcia collaborated with men as they all had a similar diagnosis.
She said, “This court was stunned by the attack on the expert, made via submissions, in circumstances where counsel had failed to discredit the witness during the trial.
“In the view of the court, if each claimant suffered the same experiences, almost simultaneously, and gave evidence to that effect, this is not demonstrative of collusion but rather of a factual similarity of circumstances entitling each of compensation.”
Naipaul-Coolman, 52, was the former chief executive of supermarket chain Naipaul’s Xtra Foods.
She was kidnapped from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Chaguanas on December 19, 2006 and a $3 million ransom was demanded for her release.
Her body was never found.
