President of the Prison Officers Association Trevor Browne says allegations that he enticed four colleagues at Her Majesty’s Prison to call in sick three years ago are not only false but part of a “witch hunt”.
In fact, in vehemently denying the charges on Thursday, he claimed the allegations levelled against him were “just about destroying me and getting rid of me”.
“It is a witch hunt. It was about making an example of me; crushing me,” he said.
Browne was addressing Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes as he put forward his defence from the witness stand of the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, currently sitting at the Supreme Court.
Browne, who is currently on trial facing four charges related to inciting mutiny or sedition at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds, further stated that he was not on speaking terms with the four prison officers named in the charges.
He said their relationships were “strained” and he had nothing to say to them “unless it was a point of duty”.
Browne is charged that between May 1 and May 9, he maliciously endeavoured to seduce fellow officers David Davis, Ophneal Austin, Shanell Ellis-Vaughn and Stephenson Trotman from their duties by encouraging them to stage a sickout.
Ellis-Vaughn, he disclosed, first approached him sometime between March and April 2018 with respect to a matter between her and the shift leader. He said a week or so later the female prison officer approached him again about obtaining a loan from the association.
“I told her she was not a member of the association and she could not get a loan. Further, I told her that the association was not a commercial bank,” Browne said and disclosed that the officer approached him on two or three other occasions.
“I told Ms Ellis, ‘you are being a nuisance’. This was before May 2018. She wasn’t pleased and after that we never ever spoke to each other. So in the month of May 2018, of which I am accused of, we were not on speaking terms. So when she came to the court and swore . . . our relationship was strained and I never, ever spoke to her about sicking out. The evidence is false,” Browne categorically stated.
He said he had a similar relationship with Trotman after he confronted him about stealing food from the kitchen. He had opened a bag that the officer was carrying after he had allowed him access to the kitchen via the laundry which he managed between 2014 and 2015.
“I told Trotman, ‘you looking to give me a bad reputation. You tiefing the prisoners’ food . . . the Government’s food’. He took offence and said I was embarrassing him in front the inmates. Sir, I curse he. I used expletives . . . . From that time onwards he would not say anything to me and I wouldn’t say anything to him.
“So our relationship was strained. That was 2014/2015. So in 2018 I never ever attempted to seduce Stephenson Trotman to stay away from duty,” Chief Magistrate Weekes heard from Browne.
The relationship between him, Austin and Davis, he said, came to a head after he made a speech at the annual general meeting of the Prison Officers Association in November 2016.
“It offended a minority number of officers,” he claimed, adding some of them took to the podium after the meeting and accused him of embarrassing Attorney General at the time Adriel Brathwaite and the Superintendent of Prisons John Nurse.
“So, I went to the podium and I said, ‘I shut down de rum shop and I pelt out the ATM machine from the Prison Officers Association office and all of those who owe the association money got to pay back’.”
That statement, he explained, did not go down well with some members and a “mantra” developed of how he embarrassed the AG, the prison boss and made the prison look bad.
He said Davis and Austin would utter the mantra in the prison yard, stating that he [Browne] was “vex” because “I get tek down” from a post. That matter of being illegally demoted was taken before the Civil Court, he said.
“So, I decided that I had nothing to say to Austin or Davis unless it is a point of duty. So in 2018, the relationship was strained . . . I never, ever seduced Austin or Davis,” he reiterated.
Browne became emotional at one point when he spoke about the level of opposition he got from some officers in connection with a constitutional motion to fight for the rights of staff, stating that the charges were “just about destroying me, getting rid of me; it is about making an example of me, crushing me”.
Browne further stated that he felt much the same way when police came to his house on December 6, 2018 around 4:20 a.m. to search for a cell phone. He subsequently handed over his phone to the police and was told “you got to come with me”.
The prison officer said he did so after being told by his wife who was “almost in tears” because the police did not have a warrant of arrest.
Browne said he contacted trade union leader Caswell Franklyn and told him about his plight before he was escorted to the Glebe Police Station.
“I can’t really find words to really say how the investigation was conducted,” said Browne, who revealed that he made a report to the Police Complaints Authority about the matter.
He added that he was later reliably informed that the “authorities were planning to suspend me for speaking to the Press”.
The embattled prison officer added: “It was unfair. It was about destroying me; to get me out of the system at all cost. A witch hunt. I am of the view, when the court marshals get to the Superintendent and he was given the court order, I think that actually triggered my arrest.”
Browne, who is represented by Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, will reappear before the Chief Magistrate on August 10 when Inspector Janice Ifill, who is prosecuting his case, will cross-examine him. (fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb)
