Ex-inmate wins $120,000 for beating by prison officers

Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

The State has been or­dered to pay $120,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to a for­mer in­mate who was beat­en by a group of prison of­fi­cers dur­ing a 2020 ri­ot at the Gold­en Grove State Prison in Arou­ca. 

High Court Judge Sher­lanne Pierre or­dered the com­pen­sa­tion for Cur­dell Brit­to, as she up­held his as­sault and bat­tery case last week. 

The law­suit stemmed from an in­ci­dent at the prison on March 17, 2020, while Brit­to was on re­mand. 

In­mates were re­port­ed­ly protest­ing over a lack of health and safe­ty mea­sures dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic at the time. 

Brit­to claimed that he was not par­tic­i­pat­ing but was still tar­get­ed by prison of­fi­cers. He claimed that he was beat­en in his cell, re­strained and beat­en again while be­ing trans­ferred to the re­cep­tion area. 

Brit­to was even­tu­al­ly re­leased from prison af­ter the case against him was dis­missed. 

The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al de­nied li­a­bil­i­ty and claimed that the prison of­fi­cers used rea­son­able force, in­clud­ing tear gas, to quell the dis­tur­bance caused by the in­mates. 

Pre­sent­ing sub­mis­sions, Brit­to’s lawyers Mario Mer­ritt, and Keishel Grant not­ed that the prison of­fi­cers se­lect­ed to tes­ti­fy gave gen­er­alised ev­i­dence over the re­sponse to the ri­ot but did not men­tion any in­ter­ac­tions with their client. They point­ed out that the claimed ac­tions by the of­fi­cers in re­la­tion to the ri­ot did not ex­plain how Brit­to sus­tained in­juries to his eye, head, rib area and a frac­tured fin­ger. They not­ed that Brit­to’s in­juries were con­firmed by med­ical ev­i­dence. 

Jus­tice Pierre up­held his case and as­sessed the com­pen­sa­tion, in­clu­sive of ag­gra­vat­ed dam­ages. 

The State was al­so or­dered to pay Brit­to’s le­gal costs for pur­su­ing the law­suit. 

The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was rep­re­sent­ed by  Evan­na Welch and Ja­nine Joseph.