Police Constable Alicia Trapp. - she was famously caught up in a village council face-off against PUP Minister Julius Espat. She managed to dodge criminal charges for that incident, but now, she is facing disciplinary charges for a viral Facebook video. You'll remember it as the one in which she vented on the exchange she'd had with the parliamentarian.
Her police boss, Commissioner Chester Williams, insisted that her comments violated the police department's social media policy, which opened her up to internal disciplinary action. However, her attorney, OJ Elrington, asserted that any attempts to press those disciplinary charges would force his law firm to take "swift legal action" against the Commissioner.
Tonight, 7News has received a copy of the civil suit her attorney filed in the Supreme Court. We are told that it was filed this morning.
Trapp is the claimant, and in this claim, she names the Commissioner of Police, the Attorney General, and the Police Department as defendants.
According to the court document, she seeks declarations and constitutional relief for quote "...The discriminatory and arbitrary decision of the Police Department to punish the claimant for exercising her constitutionally protected rights of freedom of expression and freedom of political opinion." End quote.
She wants a declaration from the Supreme Court that the Department unfairly restricted her freedom of expression and political opinion, which is inconsistent with her constitutionally enshrined rights and freedoms of expression, political opinion, and non-discrimination. She is also asking the court to declare that the disciplinary proceedings instituted against her are unlawful, null, and void because it contravenes the parts of the constitution that grants her those rights and freedoms she should enjoy.
Two days ago, we asked the Commissioner about this pending lawsuit, and he smugly stated out that he hadn't seen any court document yet:
Reporter
"PC Trapp: where are we on the internal investigation? Last we heard OJ had sent you a letter. Is the police department proceeding with their internal investigation against Ms. Trapp?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Certainly, we are not going to be perturb by the threats of Mr. Elrington. Ms. Trapp has been served with her disciplinary charges and that matter is before a tribunal. I am waiting to see now if Mr. OJ will take swift legal actions. I believe if it were swift, the matter would have been before the courts already but so far, we have not seen anything from him in respect to that particular incident. The tribunal will commence, and we will see how it goes from there."
We'll tell you when this case goes to court.
