Court awards coast guard officer $175,000 over wrongful COVID arrest

The State has been or­dered to pay more than $175,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to a mem­ber of the T&T Coast Guard, who was ar­rest­ed and pros­e­cut­ed for breach­ing pub­lic health reg­u­la­tions for the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic af­ter hav­ing a lime at his apart­ment build­ing in May 2021.

Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad or­dered the com­pen­sa­tion for Lead­ing Hand Cody Mor­ris as he up­held his wrong­ful ar­rest, false im­pris­on­ment, and ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion case against the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al at the end of a brief tri­al at the Wa­ter­front Ju­di­cial Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Mor­ris was ar­rest­ed as po­lice of­fi­cers raid­ed his apart­ment build­ing at Rail­way Road, Arou­ca, on May 20, 2021.