FORMER Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe, has found himself in more legal trouble as Deputy Commissioner, Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Brutus has filed a $70-million libel suit against him.

Brutus, through his attorney C.V. Satram, moved to the Demerara High Court and filed a Statement of Claim against Slowe for damages in excess of $60 million for a series of libel committed between November 22, 2021, and January 12, 2022.

He is also seeking aggravated and or exemplary damages in excess of $10 million.

In his lawsuit, Brutus said that on October 15, 2021, Slowe appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court to answer three counts of sexual assault and the offence of conspiracy to defraud the state of just over $10 million.

The court document, seen by this newspaper noted that Slowe allegedly created and began operating Facebook and YouTube pages under the title, ‘SPEAKING OUT, EXPOSING CORRUPTION’.

The claimant is contending that Slowe, since creating the social media pages, would regularly publish and or cause to be published defamatory material about him.

“The said Facebook and YouTube pages were created by the defendant or at his instruction for the sole purpose of launching character attacks on the aforesaid officers that are investigating him for these offences in an effort to prejudice the investigations,” Brutus said in his court documents.

In his lawsuit, Brutus said that the slanderous words used against him by Slowe were calculated to disparage him and intentionally done to embarrass, humiliate and injure his reputation and standing as a senior officer of the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

According to the senior police officer in his submission, the publications are not only false, but are also aimed at tarnishing his reputation and have caused him to suffer considerable hurt, distress and embarrassment.

He is arguing that the statements were also published with the intention to lower his character, morality and honesty in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public as they are in electronic circulation on social media.

Among other things, Brutus is claiming that he has been and continues to be demeaned in the eyes of his peers and subordinate ranks of the GPF and his authority is also being questioned.

He is also asking the court to grant an injunction to restrain Slowe, whether by himself, his servants, his agents or employees, from further speaking or publishing the same or any similar defamatory statements about him.

“Unless restrained by this Honourable court the Defendant [Slowe] will further publish the same or similar defamatory statements,” Brutus said in his court documents.

Earlier this year, Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Senior Superintendent, Fazil Karimbaksh had filed a $70M lawsuit against Slowe for similar claims.

Brutus was among five senior GPF officers who brought a legal challenge against the PSC over the year-end police promotions for 2020.

That legal challenge was later struck out by Acting Chief Justice, Roxane George S.C in June 2021.

Following the CJ’s ruling, the Government of Guyana, through the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall S.C., issued a statement rejecting the PSC’s promotion list as “unlawful and illegal.”

It noted that in the circumstances, this purported list of promotions of members of the GPF will be ignored, since the PSC was suspended by His Excellency, President Dr Irfaan Ali, on June 16, 2021.

Finally, on August 8, 2021, the life of the five-member PSC expired.

The PSC is currently challenging its suspension by President Ali, a move which it claims was “unconstitutional.” This matter is currently ongoing before High Court Judge, Gino Persaud.