The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A POLICE sergeant says he is now homeless and barely able to make ends meet because he claims the Royal Bahamas Police Force owes him money after they discontinued his salary following an injury he received on the job ten years ago.

Police Sgt Charleston Deveaux told The Tribune he received his last pay cheque from the law enforcement agency in 2015, four years after being injured while on duty.

As a result of those injuries, Mr Deveaux said he now suffers from a medical condition called bilateral avascular necrosis, which leaves him unable to work.

“I was executing an arrest on a person, a young man for armed robbery and murder in 2011 and I was in pursuit of this individual, I ended up going over a fence and I injured my back and my lower hip,” he said.

“When I got injured, I was able to go to the clinic when I saw the doctor there and explained my injuries, how I got my injury and he told me that he would give me some medication, some days off and he told me he would get an X-ray done at PMH.

“I did that and I got a couple days off and I came back to work and continued working... but my hip continued to hurt, my back continued to hurt and my mobility became diminished in 2012.”

He continued: “…So I went to Doctors Hospital in 2014 in the presence of the force’s medical doctor. I was X-rayed by a doctor there and she told me that I had damage to both of my hips and she asked me if I was in a car accident. I explained to her what happened so she said, ‘yeah, you’ve developed a condition called bilateral avascular necrosis.’”

Since the diagnosis, the father-of-two said his life has been dealt blow after blow – from losing his father to being told he would need surgery to correct the issue a few months later. Mr Deveaux said he also lost his mother and grandmother during the ordeal.

However, what was most shocking for the police sergeant was when he learned his salary had been discontinued from his place of employment allegedly without cause. Other officers who had been injured in the line of duty and stood down from the force maintained their salaries, he claims.

The situation, he added, left him unable to pay his monthly mortgage payments and he was recently evicted from his home, forcing him to sleep in his car.

“It was 2015. .. I was paying (my mortgage) $1,700 a month – no issues. I have been a member of the RBPF since 1988. I was not out for an inordinate amount of time and my medical records are legitimate and current, but these people stopped my salary arbitrarily in June 2015. In 2016, I went to HR and called them to say ‘pay me my money’. They never did anything and I continued agitating.”

In an effort to get the matter addressed, the father-of-two said he met with then Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade, who he said promised him to assist with the issue.

However, Mr Deveaux said the problem was never rectified because Mr Greenslade left office shortly afterwards.

He said in December 2017 he contacted then Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson to little avail.

“So, I went to Mr (Marvin) Dames and he told me he would look into it and told me to bring my documents and he would deal with it. I did what he said and he turned me onto the acting permanent secretary for the ministry at the time.”

He added: “The acting permanent secretary heard my matter, he saw my documents and said he was going to turn me over to the HR manager (at the time) who would agitate from HR section of the RBPF to find out what’s going on.”

However, he claimed that the RBPF’s human resources manager later told him she was unable to access his documents from the RBPF’s headquarters.

Mr Deveaux said the final straw was when he received foreclosure documents for his home, a situation that forced him to revisit the ministry to have the matter dealt with as soon as possible.

“Acting PS telephoned the COP and demanded my file,” he said. “Within 30 minutes it was produced. I was asked to give time for perusal of my file. The very next day, I was summoned by the acting permanent secretary and given a formal apology on behalf of Minister Dames and the ministry for the manner in which I was treated.

“Further, he asked me to format and produce a letter of demand (LOD) to the ministry outlining what I was owed by the government. After consultation with my legal team, I returned and gave the acting permanent secretary my LOD to my foreclosure hearing scheduled for the following week. He perused it with his legal team at the ministry. He then stamped it and endorsed it.

“I was asked to take the endorsed stamped LOD to my foreclosure hearing scheduled for the following week. (A judge) presided over my matter. He was given the LOD, read it and suspended his ruling in five months so the ministry could address the error in my matter.

“I (also) communicated with a (worker) at the AG’s office, civil litigation. He informed me that he was aware of the matter and that counsel addressing it was transferred and he reassigned it.”

To this day, Mr Deveaux said his matter has not yet been rectified, despite his many letters to various government officials over the years.

Mr Deveaux also said he is now homeless because he was unable to make his monthly payments for his home, a situation that forces him to sleep in his car.

“I got evicted because I was unable to pay my mortgage from 2015 because my salary was arbitrarily discontinued by the HR department of the RBPF while I’m still a serving member of the RBPF and while I’m still seeing a doctor who I’ve been seeing from 2014 until now about my condition.

“Since then, I have been sleeping in my car on the beach and in the neighbour’s yard. I’m long overdue for my surgery. I could literally barely walk right now and my condition is deteriorating day by day.

“I didn’t want my business out there and tried to address the matter as quickly and quietly as possible, but nothing is happening. I have given almost two thirds of my life for an organisation I love and to be treated in this matter is sad and sobering. I feel targeted.”

When The Tribune contacted an official at the RBPF’s human resources department on the matter, this newspaper was told “no comment”.