By Alicia Chamely
FORMER Attorney General Reginald Armour is being called upon to publicly apologise for his “disingenuous public posturing” and “malicious allegations” regarding a missing court file in the $20 million Vindra Naipaul-Coolman prosecution case.
The call came from former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan via Free Law Chambers on Tuesday morning.
Ramlogan’s demand for an apology came after the nine men once accused of kidnapping and murdering Vindra Naipaul-Coolman, won their appeal against the state, reclaiming a $20 million payout.
On June 9, Justice Nolan Bereaux and Mark Mohammed formed the majority to set aside a previous judge’s decision to block the pay out and restore the original ruling that awarded each man $2.1 million.
Shervon Peters, Devon Peters, Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, Keida Garcia, Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimingham, and Antonio Charles sued the state for malicious prosecution and wrongful detention. The men spent ten years in jail, before being acquitted of all charges in 2016.
Justices Nolan Bereaux and Mark Mohammed formed the majority, setting aside a previous judge’s decision to block the payout and restoring both the default judgment and the original order by the master of the court.
The men filed their suit and served the state in June 2020. The state failed to appear, and the men received a default judgement, awarding them close $2.1 million each. The ruling was made by High Court Judge Joan Charles.
Upon receiving news of the judgement via the media, then AG Armour said his office was unaware of the suit and only learned of it through media reports. He said the case file had gone “missing”, a claim that was highly criticised by Ramlogan, who felt Armour was shifting blame from the AG’s office and subtly accusing the men’s legal team of interference.
Charles would go on to reverse her judgement, saying the suit was not properly served to the AGs office.
The case file was subsequently recovered by retired justice Stanely John who was asked to investigate. John noted the file was never missing and was always available electronically.
In his release, a victorious Ramlogan said, “Having regard to the findings in this judgment, we call upon former AG Reginald Armour to personally and publicly apologise for his disingenuous public posturing in this matter and for the scurrilous and malicious accusations made about a missing court file when the evidence clearly proved this to be a lie. The scandal created by the PNM has backfired—spectacularly and comprehensively!”
He said, “It is a complete vindication for our clients and their legal team, considering the insinuation and innuendo by Mr Armour who sought to deflect attention from the State’s incompetent handling of this case by claiming that the file had suddenly ‘disappeared’. His remarks suggested that our clients or their legal team might have had something to do with the sudden disappearance of this file.”
Ramlogan said the court was critical of how the AGs office “mishandled” the case and despite having sufficient time to reply to the lawsuit, simply did not appear.
Armour served as Attorney General under the People’s National Movement Government from 16 March 2022 to March 2025. He resigned in 2025 to take up a position as a Justice of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal.
