Calling the actions of two constables “unacceptable and quite frankly alarming” after finding that they “conspired to concoct a web of lies to undergird any charges which they chose to lay”, a High Court has awarded attorney Lani Daisley almost $400 000 in costs and damages as a result of her 2012 arrest and subsequent charging.
“This is a case in which a junior attorney-at-law was arrested and charged with offences by police officers for fearlessly carrying out her duty as an attorney-at-law and an officer of the court,” said Justice Bryan Weekes in his decision.
“Attorneys-at-law, as officers of the court, are bound by the ethical and moral standards set by the code which governs their conduct as attorneys-at-law. They are held to a higher standard of conduct than other members of civil society, and this is certainly the case in their interactions with the police,” he said.
“So that when they are arrested and charged with assaulting police officers and resisting arrest, attorneys-atlaw are exposed to not only personal, but professional embarrassment, humiliation and hurt caused by the malicious actions of members of the very body tasked with ‘protecting and assuring’ the public. [T]he conduct of the officers involved in this matter fell far below the level of professionalism and decency expected of members of the Barbados Police Service,” Justice Weekes declared.
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