Tivoli residents damage claims top 1,000
Published:Wednesday | July 14, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
The Government could be facing compensation claims totalling millions of dollars as a result of the late May incursion in the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens.
The Office of the Public Defender has already received more than 1,000 claims from persons who allege that their property was damaged by members of the security forces, and more statements were still being recorded up to yesterday.
"We are taking the statements and going through them to ensure that we verify the claims," L.K. Simpson, chief investigator in the Office of the Public Defender, told The Gleaner on Monday.
"We expect to be done in a few weeks because even as we record the statements, we are going through the ones which were already submitted," Simpson added.
Damaged property
Several residents of Tivoli Gardens have claimed that members of the security forces who stormed the barricaded community on May 24 destroyed their property.
"Dem mash up mi washing machine and mi daughter component set that her father carry from foreign for her," said one woman as she echoed the claims of several of her neighbours.
Others have complained about property damage, missing items and deliberate destruction of property by members of the security forces.
These are complaints which the Office of the Public Defender has heard often and the man who leads that office, Earl Witter, is determined to seek compensation for those with genuine grievances.
"We receive the complaints and we investigate them to determine the loss and assess the damages before arriving at what we believe would be a fair sum in cases where monetary compensation should be paid," Witter told The Gleaner.
"The nominal defendant is the attorney general, who would be asked to respond, and usually there is a process of negotiations where this is settled," Witter added.
He noted that this would apply in cases where the claim is for damage to items such as household appliances, furniture and property.
It would be different in cases where the claim is against members of the security forces accused of unjustifiable homicide.
Then the claim is made on behalf of the estate of the person killed.
"Where there is a claim of a breach of the right to life this is a far more involved and complex process," Witter said.
According to the public defender, where the attorney general does not agree that the death was an unjustified homicide, the matter could head to court for a ruling.