The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

A JAMAICAN woman who was held in immigration detention for 199 days despite being fined by a court for overstaying has been awarded nearly $140,000 after the Supreme Court found she was unlawfully imprisoned and subjected to degrading treatment.

Acting Assistant Registrar Adrienne Bellot awarded Carolla Ashman Demeritte $89,400 in compensatory damages for false imprisonment and $50,000 in exemplary damages, bringing the total award to $139,400.

The court also ordered the government to pay $18,000 in legal costs.

Mrs Demeritte, a Jamaican national married to a Bahamian, sued the Attorney General, the Minister of Immigration, the Director of Immigration, the officer in charge of the Carmichael Road Detention Centre and the Commander of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force over her arrest and detention between April and November 2021.

She testified that a senior officer called her a “whore” and told her that her husband did not want her. She also said officers joked about her detention and that another officer repeatedly threatened to send her to prison.

The court heard that Mrs Demeritte witnessed officers beating detainees, underwent strip searches and was denied access to lawyers retained by her husband.

She further alleged that another female detainee regularly entered her sleeping area and tried to touch her sexually, while rumours that male detainees would enter the female dormitory left her fearing sexual assault.

Mrs Demeritte also complained of inadequate food, denial of sanitary products, insect and snake infestations and a prolonged period without running water, during which toilets could not be flushed.

The defendants failed to file a defence, prompting the court to enter a default judgment against them in March 2023. The latest ruling dealt only with the assessment of damages.

The court rejected the government’s attempt to argue that Mrs Demeritte’s detention was lawful because she lacked travel documents after her passport was misplaced. Assistant Registrar Bellot ruled that liability had already been settled by the default judgment and could not be challenged during the damages hearing.

According to the judgment, Mrs Demeritte entered The Bahamas as a visitor in July 2018 and married a Bahamian later that month. She later applied for a Residential Spousal Permit, but the application was refused in February 2020.

In October 2020, she was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident in Abaco and airlifted to New Providence for treatment. During her hospitalisation, her passport and other travel documents were misplaced.

On April 19, 2021, she was arrested in Abaco and charged with overstaying. Three days later, she pleaded guilty and was fined $1,500, paying $1,300 towards the penalty.

Although she did not receive a custodial sentence, she remained in custody at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

Mrs Demeritte was held for 199 days before then-Supreme Court Justice Bernard Turner ordered her immediate release through a writ of habeas corpus on November 4, 2021. The court found she was held for another seven hours after that order before being released.

During the damages hearing, Mrs Demeritte testified that she endured degrading and inhumane conditions throughout her detention.

She said she was first held in an Abaco jail cell with men and women, without hygiene products or proper restroom facilities, forcing her to urinate on herself. She said she was transferred to New Providence on a commercial flight after four days wearing the same soiled clothes in which she had been arrested.

At the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, she said she lived in constant fear as officers verbally abused detainees, mocked them and threatened to send her to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

After her release, Mrs Demeritte said she suffered another devastating loss when she was denied entry into The Bahamas after her husband died in a traffic accident in November 2022, preventing her from attending his funeral.

The defendants called only one witness, former Chief Immigration Officer Vonetta Flowers-Darling, who denied insulting Mrs Demeritte and testified generally about detention centre procedures.

However, Assistant Registrar Bellot found Mrs Demeritte to be the more credible witness and accepted her evidence about her treatment and the conditions of her detention.

In assessing damages, the court considered the length of Mrs Demeritte’s detention, the loss of her liberty and the degrading conditions she endured. The ruling said damages for false imprisonment should not be calculated by a strict mathematical formula, but should reflect the overall impact of the unlawful detention.

The court declined to award separate damages for aggravated damages, assault, battery, vindicatory damages or breaches of constitutional rights, finding those claims would either duplicate the compensation already awarded or were unsupported by the evidence.

Instead, the court awarded $50,000 in exemplary damages to punish what it described as oppressive, arbitrary and unconstitutional conduct by state officials and to deter similar conduct in the future.

In addition to damages, the government was ordered to pay Mrs Demeritte $15,000 in legal costs for obtaining the default judgment and the assessment hearing, along with another $3,000 for costs arising from an adjournment requested by the defendants.