Ex-cop’s legal claim rejected

(CNS): A former police officer’s case that he had been forced out of the RCIPS as a result of threats made by the deputy police commissioner and a whispering campaign was rejected by the Grand Court Monday. Justice Alex Henderson found that while DPC Steve Brougham may very well have wanted Herbert Muschette to resign and while there may have been rumours and gossip circulating about him, this did not amount to a wrongful dismissal. In his decision following a three day hearing last week the judge made no comment on the revelations that Brougham had chosen not to investigate very serious criminal allegations about Muschette in exchange for his voluntary departure from the service.

Henderson said that his impression of Muschette when he gave evidence during the trial was that “he was attempting to tell the truth but the accuracy of his recollection must be questioned.”

The judge pointed to various inconsistencies as well as numerous claims that Muschette had made about what people had said regarding his position, all of which were denied by the witnesses. He also noted that after the critical meeting that Muschette had with Brougham where the threats were allegedly made, the former cop had made no notes, unlike the senior officer, who made a note immediately after the meeting about what was said.

Muschette had claimed that during the meeting with DPC Brougham in July 2010 he had been threatened with jail if he did not leave the service of his own accord, as a result of serious allegations against him that he was dealing drugs, passing information to the criminal underworld and soliciting female motorists for sexual favours in exchange for not prosecuting them for driving offences, 

Although the ex-cop denied allof these entirely unsubstantiated allegations, he said the stress of the threats followed by the whispering campaign had driven him to resign against his will and he had therefore been dismissed without due process.

Henderson said he believed that the meeting with Brougham contributed to driving Muschette out of the force but he pointed to other issues that were already affecting the officer.

Muschette was on extended sick leave for stress at the time, and although he pointed to the meeting as a defining moment, in an email he sent to DPC Anthony Ennis the very next day he said he was not going to resign.

During the trial Brougham admitted that he had been prepared to let Muschette leave the service and to brush aside the allegations. He told the court that while the allegations were very serious and of a criminal nature there was no documented evidence, as the people making the claims that Muschette was corrupt were either police informants or people who did not want to make written statements.

He also said that at the time the RCIPS was seriously under-resourced and he did not have enough officers to conduct such an investigation.

Muschette, who had been a traffic cop for the large part of his time in the RCIPS, went on stress leave soon after he was moved from that department to the police station in George Town and following to internal complaints about him, one from a fellow officer and one from a person he had arrested, suggesting he was heavy handed in his approach.

Muschette, who came to Cayman after six years in the Jamaican police force, served ten years in the RCIPS before he resigned. He vehemently denied the allegations against him and insisted that he was a diligent and hard-working officer who became the subject of a conspiracy to have him removed from the service

Related article on CNS:

Ex-cop: DPC threatened jail