Shane Harris Wins False Imprisonment Case Against Police Department

Shane Harris

Twenty-nine-year-old Shane Harris is no stranger to the law; in fact, his most recent brush on record was in April 2018 when he was arrested and charged for his involvement in an armed robbery in Belmopan.  Harris was subsequently released on bail on the condition that he cannot be on the streets between eight-thirty p.m. and six a.m.  On the night of November thirtieth, 2019, he was picked up by police at a residence on Armadillo Street on the premise that he was violating his bail conditions.  Despite telling the arresting officers that he was not on the streets and that he knew the terms on which he was freed, Harris was taken into custody and lockdown for the entire weekend, before being released without charge on Monday.  It’s a common practice that’s done by officers across the country.  Harris sued the department earlier this week Justice Westmin James ruled that in fact he was arrested and falsely imprisoned. The Supreme Court has granted him damages and other awards in the claim and, according to attorney Dickie Bradley, the decision sets the precedence that holding persons for forty-eight hours in a prison cell without charges being brought is unlawful.

Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley

Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney-at-Law

“It is an elementary and straightforward matter but it is an extremely and important legal development for us in Belize.  What judge Westmin [James] is saying, having carefully gone over the evidence presented from both sides, looking at the facts of the evidence and he, in fact, refers to several laws that have covered this matter and he found that in that case the police could easily have taken Shane Harris to his house so he could get the copy of his bail order so he can show that the thing is saying I should not be in streets after a certain hour.  They did not do that.  He said that they could have allowed him to contact a family member to bring it to the police station.  Dehn noh want hyah about that.  It was not until Monday that they clarified and of course another police was kind enough to allow Harris to call his attorney.  The judge is saying that in those circumstances, in those facts, based on law all over the democratic world, that Shane Harris was wrongfully arrested.  There’s no grounds to arrest that man.  Shane Harris was imprisoned falsely, it’s called in law false imprisonment.  There was no grounds on which to keep him imprisoned to violate the right to liberty that he and every Belizeans enjoy.”