Clarendon attorney alleges plain-clothes officer assaulted her after she declined his advances at May Pen records office

Until March 2026, a lawyer who appears at the parish, Supreme and Appeal Court levels had little patience for clients who claimed abuse by members of the security forces. That outlook shifted, she says, after a police officer whose romantic overtures she turned down allegedly beat her and ejected her from a government facility.

“I used to be sceptical when clients shared these stories but…I’ve experienced it for myself,” the attorney, who requested anonymity, told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

She said she visited the Police Records Office in May Pen, Clarendon, on March 12 this year on official business when events took a violent turn. While completing paperwork for processing, she encountered a man who asked for her telephone number, saying he wished to get to know her. She said she politely refused.

She next encountered him at the doorway of the waiting area where she was due to submit her documents. “He called me. I told him that I was there to do a police record. He didn’t introduce himself… I didn’t know his name,” she recounted.

The man then began questioning her application, first claiming the photograph was wrong and then insisting she lacked the proper receipt. He told her that unless changes were made, her file would not be handled that day.

“He was not in any uniform. He was in plain clothes, he didn’t even have on a badge. I just treated him as…I would treat anyone, because I thought more or less that he worked there… I showed him the receipt; and I even showed him the one on my phone that was generated after I did the application,” she recalled.

Tension rose when she maintained that her receipt was valid and that she had followed every instruction, and therefore expected same-day processing. “He pushed me in the wall and hit my head. He placed my hands behind my back in the arresting position and said that he’s going to arrest me for disobeying a police officer’s command,” she told the Observer.

When he let go, apparently to retrieve handcuffs, she said she left for a nearby Internet café, printed a fresh copy of the document and returned in an effort to calm the situation. “He was already back at the door. He said, ‘Let me see the receipt.’ I showed him the receipt, and he said, ‘You have to come back another day,’” she said.

“I asked him who is in charge and he said he is the one who ‘run tings’. So I am assuming he is the supervisor or the head person. So I gave him the receipt again, he crushed the receipt and threw it at my feet and said I have to come back another day. He opened the door and was taking up my bag to throw outside,” she continued.

“I forced myself in through the space that was left, went in, and I sat down, and I held on to my bag, because he was going to throw my bag outside. He pulled me to my feet, forced my phone from my hands and he literally threw me outside, and then he started to beat me,” she said.

The attorney said she is awaiting findings from an investigation conducted by the Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau (IPROB), the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s internal watchdog and anti-corruption unit. She said her glued-down lace-front wig was “torn off” her head, and fewer than three of her 10 press-on nails survived the encounter.

“I went back inside to take up my bag, because this time I was going to head home and call it a day. He said, ‘B**ch you are not going anywhere, you are under arrest!’ He basically forced me, again, into the arresting position, saying that he’s going to charge me for assaulting a police officer, disobeying a police officer’s command and public mischief,” she recalled.

She said the confrontation played out in front of other customers, a client who had accompanied her, and was captured on closed-circuit television at the premises. Too stunned to fight back, she said bystanders intervened. “My client was pulling him off me and saying, ‘Just let her go, let her go!’ And then two persons from inside the Police Records Office came and held on to him. While they were holding on to him, he was saying, ‘Arrest her, arrest di gal!’ and they held on to him and pulled him inside,” she stated.

“He was being disrespectful. He abused me — not just physically, but verbally — and at no point I responded in kind… I was so taken aback, I couldn’t believe that this was really happening. This was such a traumatic experience. I was unable to go to work for two days; even now I have to be going to the doctor,” she said, adding that she now wears a brace because of pain in her lower back.

The petite attorney told the Observer that after discovering she was a lawyer, the officer reported her to the General Legal Council the following day, claiming she had struck him first. “I can’t even join the police force based on my weight and my height. I would have to write to the police commissioner to get a waiver. He beat me up, and then he went there and said I pushed him in the door and hit his back and damaged his spinal area. This man is medium built; even if I push him he would not move. He is plump, and I am being kind in saying that. I weigh 125 pounds, I am shorter than him,” she argued.

She said she decided to speak publicly to stand in for others who have endured similar treatment. She believes she avoided detention that day only because of her profession as an attorney. She has supplied paperwork confirming that she lodged a complaint with IPROB.

“I do have plans to take the matter to court. I was waiting to see where IPROB would go from there, but my lawyer is just waiting to see if they will make a decision soon, or if we need to proceed without them making a decision. I want to be as reasonable as possible, so I’m giving them the chance to decide,” she said.

For her, the ordeal remains unforgettable. “I did not touch that officer, I didn’t even get the opportunity. It was not even a fight, it was a beat up. I did not hit him once and he must be adding insult to injury because he said I pushed him and damaged his spine. He beat me so badly I was in disbelief. They have to do better. They really have to do better because you cannot use your power and do these things to people,” she argued.