By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Digital Editor

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY David P Cash has filed a Supreme Court claim seeking damages and constitutional declarations against the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General, for what he calls his unlawful, malicious and unconstitutional arrest in Freeport last year.

In the claim filed last week, the New Providence-based attorney accuses officers at the Central Police Station in Grand Bahama of assaulting him, unlawfully detaining him for 12 hours, and later charging him with disorderly behaviour and obscene language. Those charges against him were dismissed earlier this year in July.

According to court documents, Mr Cash said he was grabbed by the collar by a sergeant as he attempted to leave the station after he was denied the right to meet his client, Mermaid “Mervie” Knowles, who was in custody at the time. He claims he was then dragged toward the front desk and told “you lock up” before being placed in a unsanitary, foul-smelling, and overheated cell where he had limited access to a restroom and legal counsel.

In his filing, Mr Cash itemised $11,390 in special damages, which included airfare, car rental fees, accommodation, and legal representation tied to his arrest and subsequent trial in Grand Bahama.

He said the experience caused him humiliation, post-traumatic stress, and damage to his professional reputation, which he claims was further harmed by national media coverage of his arrest and prosecution.

In July, Magistrate Laquay Laing later ruled there was no case to answer, finding Mr Cash’s conduct amounted only to an attorney passionately defending his client’s rights.

Mr Cash is seeking general, aggravated, exemplary, and vindicatory damages for alleged breaches of his constitutional rights under Articles 17, 19, 20, and 25 of the Constitution.

The defendants are named as the Commissioner of Police, in his capacity as head of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and the Attorney General, under the Crown Proceedings Act.