The State must pay $195,000 to two men who were beaten by police, denied food and water and released from custody after three days without being charged. John Herera, 53, a construction worker from New Grant, and his friend, Terrance Huggins, 35, a technician from Preysal Village, Couva, were successful in the lawsuit filed by their attorney Imran Khan for assault and battery and false imprisonment. Last Friday in the Port-of-Spain Supreme Court Master Sobion-Awai awarded Herera $100,000 in damages and Huggins $95,000. The evidence was that around 3.30 pm on Saturday, August 9, 2008, Herera met Huggins in Princes Town and asked him to go with him to the San Fernando General Hospital to visit his wife.
However, they stopped at the Carlos Bar, Princes Town, where they met another friend, Marlon Nanan, and stayed there for a while. As they left the bar, the men said a fight broke out between Nanan and another man. Herera and Huggins said they tried to break up the fight but a crowd gathered and began pelting bottles. As they ran, the men got separated but met up at the San Fernando Hospital. One of the men involved in the fight was at the hospital and was threatening them so they left.
While they were walking towards Gordon Street, the men said, a police van pulled up, two officers got out and one began kicking and cuffing them. Huggins said he was ordered to lie on the ground and the other officer mashed him with his foot, hit him in the waist with his gun, slapped and kicked him in the ribs. Herera said an officer also stamped him on his right elbow, neck, both legs and right foot. At the San Fernando Police Station, the men said they were beaten again and placed in a dirty cell where they were left overnight without food or water. The next day they were taken to the Princes Town Police Station where they were again put in a cell.
The men said their requests for a phone call to a relative or lawyer were denied and it was not until Monday they were given something to eat. However, Huggins said he could not eat the sausage sandwich he was given because there was a fly in it. On the Tuesday, they were allowed to leave the station after they had signed a statement, it was stated.