BUSINESSMAN Michael St John will have to wait until October 1 to find out if the Commissioner of Police (CoP) will be ordered to correct his allegedly inaccurate personal information in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) database.
At a hearing on March 6, Justice Nadia Kangaloo set the date for her ruling on St John's lawsuit, which seeks a court order compelling the CoP to amend the police’s records, including the Versadex system,
St John contends the database “incorrectly” listed him as a convicted drug dealer who was deported.
He is represented by Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and attorney Om Lalla. His legal team contends that the commissioner has repeatedly failed to correct the inaccurate information, despite obligations under Section 36(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
This section states that a public authority must correct inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading personal information upon request. St John argues that the CoP’s failure to act is an ongoing violation of his rights.
St John is the owner of Tower Promotion Company Ltd and D’Dial Fitness.
According to his lawsuit, after being denied a United States green card in 2017 because of ‘certain information against him,’ St John began investigating the case. He was given screenshots of his profile on the TTPS database, which listed him as being convicted of drug trafficking in August 2002 and a subsequent deportee from the US.
St John said the information was false, as he was never convicted of drug trafficking.
His claim said the first screen shot incorrectly stated: “foreign offender, deportee charged in TT, drug offender, deported in…”
“The second screenshot incorrectly stated, ‘Drug trafficking, status convicted, and Place New York. The fourth screenshot incorrectly stated ‘Foreign offence, Offence cocaine—sell, status convicted and place New York.’
“The seventh screenshot, incorrectly stated deportation and 2022 Aug 15. In the body of the document, it states, ‘Known offender Michael St John was deported from the US on 9th December 2022 for attempting to enter the US on 30 March 2022 by using a forged passport. Please be advised that all narcotic charges against the subject were dropped to expedite the subject’s deportation on false passport charges,” the legal document stated.
In April 2024, St John sent a pre-action protocol letter to then CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher, giving her 14 days to respond.
“It has affected his trading and business interests, which require him to apply for licences, regulatory permits, insurance, and loans for his businesses. This has posed a significant obstacle to his business,” Maharaj said at a press conference in April 2024.
“This matter involves a very serious issue of both human rights and constitutional rights, as it affects the security of the person when false information is held by public authority.
“The revelation of this false information stored on a police database raises serious issues on the integrity of the system and the damage, not only to our client
