After settling out of court with the man he injured when he slammed into a parked car late Sunday night, Magistrate Haymant Ramdhani has accused police of wickedness for continuing to pursue the matter.
“The parties have settled the matter, so that is the end of that. There is some wickedness on the part of the police that I wanted to resolve before I come to the press,” Magistrate Ramdhani told Stabroek News, in an invited comment last evening.
He, however, demurred on his refusal to take a breathalyser test after the accident. He noted too that the Kaieteur News, which earlier carried a report on the incident, needed a lawsuit as its “one side reportage” is becoming too prevalent.
Victor Adams, the Victoria resident who was injured in the accident, has said that the magistrate has expressed remorse while adding that he ought to have been more responsible.
“You cannot stop somebody from enjoying their private life but if you are someone of that standard (magistrate) you need to put things in place to have a chauffeur take you home rather than take the risk of driving under the influence,” Adams, who is nursing injuries to his neck and an ankle, said on Tuesday.
Adams, who does volunteer work for Partners of the Americas, told Stabroek News that the magistrate, amidst apologies, opted to fix his damaged vehicle. However, he said that his personal needs are not being addressed, while explaining that he will be unable to work for about eight weeks. He sustained two fractures to his ankle, which is in a cast, and he is also wearing a neck brace.
Adams recalled that around 11:30 pm on Sunday, he was about to jump out of his vehicle, parked on his bridge, to open his gate, when there was an impact. He said that the impact sent his car into a nearby gutter. He added that he managed to pull himself out and was lying on the grass when he realized that his foot was in the wrong direction.
“I twisted it the right way and then held onto it,” he recalled, adding that minutes later a driver stopped on seeing obstacles on the roadway and enquired if he had been involved in a hit and run accident. When he replied in the affirmative, the man sped off in search of the other vehicle.
Minutes later, he recalled, the driver of the second car returned and said that the other vehicle apparently suffered a blowout and was parked at the side of the road a short distance away.
According to Adams, the driver gave PNN 4101 as the licence plate number and said that the driver was still sitting inside but had his window up. Persons, he said, started to venture to the scene and wash off the mud that was covering his body.
Police ranks, who were passing at the time, were notified and took the injured Adams and the magistrate to the Cove and John Police Station. Adams was later taken to the Mahaicony Hospital and then transferred to the Georgetown Hospital, where he was treated.
On Monday afternoon, he said, his brother was informed that they were needed at the police station. When they arrived, he said, the magistrate admitted to them that he had been speeding and said that his vehicle suffered a blowout, resulting in him losing control.
The man noted that the magistrate was very cooperative and acknowledged his error. The magistrate also expressed his willingness to repair the damaged vehicle and an agreement was later written to that effect.
Adams said that he knows that had the man not been a magistrate, things would not have gone as smoothly as it did.
‘He wasn’t nice to me’
However, Magistrate Ramdhani told this newspaper that a certain police officer is pushing the incident with an intention to have the matter prosecuted. He explained that the police contacted him asking for documents and saying that measurements needed to be taken.
He noted that the police contacted the injured man and told him that he has to give a statement in the matter subsequent to him signing an agreement to have the matter resolved.
Magistrate Ramdhani said that the rank is upset. He explained that following the accident, the rank, who was in plain clothes and who did not identify himself, attempted to take a statement and he refused. This, according to him, offended the man. “I am a magistrate. I wouldn’t go nowhere,” he said adding that the man wanted him to go and sit on the bench in the station.
“He wanted to put me like a little boy on the bench like I am a criminal,” he stressed. He said he asked the man to give him a reason why he was being detained and since he could provide none, he started to walk out of the station. It was at this point, the magistrate said, that the man assaulted him. “He wasn’t nice to me,” he noted.
When contacted, Divisional Commander David Ramnarine said that he did not have many details on the incident but has been advised that “the matter will be played out in a certain way, with the magistrate taking a lead role with the victim, which isn’t anything unusual. It has happened in the past.”
Ramnarine said that at the same time, “what has been noted is the unpleasantness on the part of the magistrate while at the police station.” He did not elaborate further but this newspaper was told that the magistrate was very uncooperative with ranks and even refused to take the breathalyser test; with his reason being that it was not properly sanitized.
Asked if the law provides motorists with a choice when it comes to the test, Ramnarine said that “those who want to bully their way would obviously make a scene to justify their reluctance but it is not always the right thing to do because such behaviour does not always escape unnoticed.”
