Miller awarded almost $850,000 after “false imprisonment” at Mental Hospital

Cheryl Miller, the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Affairs employee who shot into the public limelight after she was dragged from her office and forcibly committed to the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital almost three years ago, has been awarded almost $850,000 in compensation.
Miller was handed the substantial payout yesterday at the conclusion of her lawsuit against her former employer and the management of the hospital for false imprisonment.
In her lawsuit against the North West Regional Health Authority, the hospital’s operator, Miller claimed that staff at the hospital did not have the authority under the Mental Health Act to detain her against her will at the ministry’s office at the International Waterfront Centre in Port-of-Spain on March 21, 2012, before taking her off to the St Ann’s hospital.
Presiding Judge Judith Jones agreed as she ordered the authority to pay Miller $450,000 in damages for the embarrassment she suffered from the incident.
“Her mental suffering, affront to her dignity and damage to her reputation has continued long after the incarceration ended. The incarceration had and continues to have a traumatic effect on her. Some three years after the event she has clearly not recovered from its effects,” Jones said as she noted that Miller’s case became a public spectacle and was even the basis of several humorous calypsos.
Miller was also awarded $75,000 in exemplary damages for being treated with long acting psychotic drugs while at the hospital. The remainder of her compensation package represents the money which her family spent on legal fees for a habeas corpus application which saw her being released from the hospital after 17 days.
In a brief interview at her St Francios Valley Road, Belmont home following the ruling, Miller said she was thankful for the legal victory but said she felt she should have gotten much more.
“The things I was made to suffer at the hospital, that amount of money is not enough. I could have died because those were two deadly injections they gave to me. They could have killed me with those injections,” she said.
Miller said she did not wish to comment on the judge’s ruling on St Rose-Greaves and the senior public servants until she had reviewed the judgment with her lawyers.
Attempts to contact St Rose-Greaves last evening were unsuccessful as calls to her cell phone went unanswered and she did not return calls.
Ministry officials escape
In her 34-page judgment, Jones rejected claims by the hospital’s staff that their actions were permitted under section 15 of the legislation, which allows for the committal of a citizen in circumstances where they are found “wandering at large” on a roadway or other public space. The judge noted that their claims were not applicable as Miller’s cubicle at the ministry could not be classified as a public space.
While Miller wanted then Gender Minister Verna St Rose-Greaves, the ministry’s permanent secretary Sandra Jones and her deputy Jasmine Pascall to also be held accountable, as they were the ones who contacted the mental health officials to initiate the act against her, Jones disagreed.
Stating that St Rose-Greaves and the two public servants had a duty to address concerns over Miller’s conduct towards her co-workers, Jones said: “That they may have dealt with the situation differently and avoided these drastic consequences suggests to me poor judgment on their part.
“From her evidence, Miller’s complaint seems more to be that these Defendants stood by and permitted strangers from the Health Authority to come into the Ministry and remove her than there was some direction, procuring, direct request or direct encouragement to the employees of the Health Authority.”
However, Jones criticised them for their inaction in going to Miller’s assistance when the health officials arrived, which she described as “regrettable and irresponsible.”
According to the evidence in the case, the complaints against Miller included her allegedly untidy appearance, alleged arguments with co-workers and other anti-social behaviour. Since her release, Miller has been transferred to the Ministry of Sports.
Miller’s legal team included Stanley Marcus, SC, and Fitzgerald Hinds. Devesh Maharaj and Kandice Bharath appeared for the Health Authority while Ravi Rajcoomar represented Jones and Pascall. (Source Guardian)