Woman charges police brutality during another search
A NEW AMSTERDAM woman is alleging police brutality which resulted in several spots of discolouration on her left thigh and a fractured hand. Audrey Cummings claimed she was, repeatedly, lashed with a cow tail at her St. John Street home last Saturday night.
She said her husband had padlocked her in the house and left for a drink with friends.
But, having retired to bed shortly after 21:00 hrs, she was awakened by constant knocking on her front door and, on enquiring who was there, she heard ‘police’.
She said she asked:”What you want and a voice replied: ‘We come to look for guns, ammo and drugs.”
Cummings said she stated that her husband was not at home and that she, being alone, was not opening.
She said the ranks insisted but she, still, did not open and they started to kick the back door, opened it and entered into the hall.
The woman said she was locked in the bedroom, having secured it from inside but they kicked it open.
She said when they gained entry, she was lying on her bed and a policeman whom she named pulled her up by her hair and dragged her into the hall.
“They asked me for the drugs, guns and ammo that my husband have. I told them I do not know what they speaking about. They started lashing me. I got two lashes on my left leg and another on my left hand. They searched the house for three hours. No female officer was present,” Cummings complained.

Holy Bible
She said, after the named officer hit her on her left hand, he telephoned Central Police Station, requesting a female rank come to her home. Meanwhile, another rank, also named, climbed above her wardrobe and removed a Holy Bible, which he pelted on her back.
She said, subsequently, the man took her body waste utensil and turned it over her head.
Afterwards, they stirred up buckets of flour and sugar and a pot of food, prior to the arrival of a policewoman.
The visibly upset woman said the senior male rank, who had been accompanied by three juniors, warned her that, the next time he has to carry out a search on her home, he would institute a charge for narcotic and place her before the court.
Cummings said, at Central Police Station, she was ordered to sit on a chair and the female rank inserted her finger into her vagina.
“I was bleeding. My menstruation came down after the beatings and I was placed on the bench in the Enquiries Office where I spent the night until Sunday at 14:00hrs when the Station Sergeant ordered that I be taken to hospital. It was after doing an x-ray that I realised my hand was fractured. After having my hand placed in Plaster of Paris, I was escorted back to the station where I was put on $5,000 station bail and advised that I will be charged with disorderly behaviour,” she lamented.
Cummings said:”All I want the public to know is about this police brutality.”

Narcotics charge
Meanwhile, last Jauary 11, Justice Brassington Reynolds granted her $300,000 bail on a trafficking in narcotics charge.
The judge further instructed she report to Central Police Station on Mondays of each succeeding week until her case is determined.
The pre-trial liberty was allowed following a petition by attorney-at-law Ms. Kim Kyte-John at the Berbice High Court.
In the petition, Gordon Bruce, reputed husband of Cummings stated that, on October 7, 2011, the latter was at home when a party of policemen carried out a search at their St. John Street residence.
Subsequent to the raid, Cummings and three others were arrested and taken to Central Police Station, after a kidney dish was discovered with a quantity of suspected cocaine that amounted to two grammes.
On October 10, 2011, the case was called before Magistrate Krishendat Persaud, who had remanded Cummings to prison pending trial.