“When I was a criminal” | Lead stories

Deno Whyte arrived in the Bahamas on October 11 excited for his two-week vacation and plans to reunite with an old friend.

But almost immediately after the Jamaican boarded Caribbean Airlines flight BW414 in Nassau, his journey took a sudden and dramatic turn.

Whyte, a father of four, said he was removed from a queue by Bahamian immigration authorities who told him he would be refused entry based on a written request from their counterparts in Jamaica.

“They said they had an email that said, ‘If you end up here, we should turn you away.’ [because] “They need to ask you some questions,” he said, quoting a woman who identified herself as an immigration agent.

Whyte said he never saw the email.

“I was at the airport [in Jamaica] I had to wait for three hours from 9am to board the plane. I passed immigration; “I passed a lot of police officers – so if they had something to say to me, why didn’t they say it?” he ranted.

Jamaican police did not respond to questions from The Gleaner about Whyte’s claims.

Superintendent Eron Samuels, commanding officer of the St. James Police Department, who asked for the questions to be submitted in writing on Wednesday, declined to comment when contacted The Gleaner on Thursday.

“If you want to receive this information you must request it through CCN,” he said, referring to the Constabulary Communications Network, the police information arm.

Police spokeswoman, Chief Inspector Stephanie Lindsay, promised to examine the questions she submitted The Gleaner and give an answer. Until yesterday there was no answer.

‘EMBARRASSMENT’

Whyte, who lives in St. James, could not have imagined the “embarrassment” that awaited him when Bahamian authorities put him on a Caribbean Airlines flight back to his home country, he told in an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday.

Whyte said as the flight landed in Kingston, an announcement came over the plane’s intercom: “Mr Whyte, please report.”

As he arrived at the plane’s exit door, he said a police officer, who was among a group of uniformed police and immigration officers waiting outside, shouted: “That’s the guy, see him here!”

According to Whyte, he was handcuffed and led out of the crowded airport as other passengers and airport employees watched.

“I was so embarrassed… like I was a criminal. Everyone just looked until she [cops] “Put something over my head,” he said, referring to the hooded jacket he was allowed to put on after police officers briefly removed the handcuffs.

Whyte said he was briefly held in an airport waiting area before being taken to the Central Police Station jail in Kingston.

The following day, he said police took him to the Freeport Police Station jail, where he was held until Oct. 15, when he was released without charge or questioning by investigators.

He said police investigators initially suggested he was being held on suspicion of fleeing the island with forged documents, but withdrew the claims after conducting their investigation.

“A police officer said someone wanted to question me, but they didn’t tell him why… they just told him to show the CIB note [Criminal Investigation Branch] “The supervisor wants to ask me a few questions,” Whyte said.

“From the first day I was in custody until I was released, no one came and said the question I want to ask you is this or that. No one gave me a reason,” Whyte said of his ordeal between Friday and Tuesday.

PUBLISHED FOR FREE

Donnovan Collins, the lawyer hired by Whyte, noted that his client was released from custody after police were informed that he had filed a criminal complaint Habeas Corpus Application to St. James Parish Court for his immediate release.

“After the court began inquiring with the police, I received calls from them about arranging an interview,” Collins claimed.

“He was eventually released without being formally questioned or charged with a crime in the presence of his lawyer. “So it’s safe to say that the police arranged for this man to be deported without good reason and falsely detained him,” Collins said The Gleaner.

The lawyer revealed that he already had instructions to file a lawsuit against the state and said that it would happen later this month.

Livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com