By Latrishka Thomas
Well-known local personality Washington Bramble wants the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to be investigated and disciplined for what she views as discrimination and victimisation against her.
Bramble – who identifies as a woman – claims she was arrested last Friday, based on an allegedly false report made by the Acting DPP Joanne Walsh, during what Bramble described as a “big spectacle”.
She said that at least three vehicles with at least 12 officers came to her workplace, then “like three, four, of them came in with handcuffs and said they were arresting me. They never even said what the crime was”.
The officers were said to have taken her to her home where they executed a search warrant.
According to Bramble, “the search warrant seems as if the magistrate signed it beforehand and the police filled it in”.
And, not only is the investigation unwarranted but it also reflects a conflict of interest, Bramble believes.
“She [Walsh] is the one who has to say whether or not it goes forward. It is a clear conflict because she is the one who has to give the go-ahead for any prosecution; then she is the complainant,” she remarked.
Bramble disclosed the statement made on social media which led to her arrest. However, for legal reasons, Observer cannot repeat it.
“Electronic crime is not a crime. It is the name of an entire act,” she said.
The social media personality said, in short, that “she says I’m dropping words to her on Facebook, so now they are locking up people for dropping words? Using the Electronic Crimes Act, they criminalise freedom of speech.”
Though no charges have been brought against her to date, Bramble said that she is yet to receive back her personal items, to include a cellular phone, that were confiscated.
She also claimed that Walsh has been discriminating against her in legal matters since 2008 when she was Crown Counsel.
The examples she provided to support the alleged biased treatment also cannot be repeated.
Meanwhile, Bramble said she has written to the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission, calling for the body to “intervene” in the matter between her and the Acting DPP, or she will be taking legal action.
The letter states that Walsh has caused Bramble to be “harassed, illegally detained, discriminated against and victimised” for the past 10 years.
“In 2017 the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals overturned a conviction she made against me, in which case she fined and confined me for a malicious damage charge. The three justices decided that her judgement was, ‘unsafe’,” it said.
“It is my opinion that she needs to be suspended from the job. She is not fit for the job. I am suggesting that they investigate her because if we have a situation where the DPP is making a false report to the police that is very serious.
“I am going to take the government to court, I am gonna take the Attorney General to court and I am reporting her to the Judicial Services Commission,” Bramble told Observer.
Observer reached out to the Acting DPP who declined to comment.