{"id":3272,"date":"2019-12-18T17:25:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T17:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2019-12-18T17:25:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T17:25:32","slug":"vindicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3272","title":{"rendered":"VINDICATED!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em> CVM, TVJ to pay<\/em><\/li><li><em>Troupe, Reid awarded millions <\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Barrington Flemming<\/em> <\/strong><em>&#8211; Staff Reporter <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cYou can\u2019t keep a good man down; thanks be to God I\u2019m free at last.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Words of relief from Michael Troupe, former Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay and sitting councillor for the Granville Division, who, along with Sylvan Reid, councillor for the Salt Spring Division, were awarded millions in damages in the Supreme Court last Friday after successfully bringing law suits against two broadcast media entities and the attorney general.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuits suits were brought in relation to the arrests\nof Reid, who was councillor and Troupe who, at the time, was Deputy Mayor of\nMontego Bay, by the Lottery Scam Task Force in July 2012, with the men claiming\nthat they were falsely and maliciously arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three other men, including two of Troupe\u2019s sons, were also\narrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suit also named the then Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, and Superintendent Leon Clunis, as well as the Attorney General, who was named as the government representative, liable for the actions of both the commissioner and the police superintendent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Councillor-Sylvan-Reid.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Councillor-Sylvan-Reid.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Councillor-Sylvan-Reid-231x300.jpg 231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption><em>Councillor Sylvan Reid<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit also claimed certain utterances by both the\ncommissioner and superintendent, which were aired by CVM TV and TVJ, defamed\nMr. Troupe and Mr. Reid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court awarded Mr. Troupe 11-million dollars in damages\nfor defamation against the two broadcasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Mr. Reid was awarded a total of 12 million\ndollars in damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was awarded $8.5 million in damages for defamation\nagainst the two media entities and a further $3.5 million in damages for false\nimprisonment and malicious prosecution against the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MONEY NOT ALL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Troupe said while he was awarded damages, the money is not\nthe most important thing as he cherishes his integrity, which has been smeared\nfor the past seven years by false charges which also negatively impacted his\nfamily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not all about the money. When you die, the only thing\nthey can say is that councillor Troupe is a good man. I want my credibility I\ndon\u2019t want anybody to say, \u2018That bwoy was a scammer. That\u2019s not true. I was\nbrought up into a good family and I try to live and walk into the footsteps of\nmy mother and my father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo, when they came out and came to my house and put me in a\ntruck back and scandal me, it was painful and embarrassing, and it has been\naffecting me and my family for seven years. My name has been dragged through\nthe mud,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was at great pains to issue a warning to anyone who would\nattempt to defame or sully his name or reputation at any time because they\nwould have to speak to his lawyer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI will now continue to live my life as a free man and I\nhope people will begin to think differently now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reid in his response noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI knew I would be vindicated because I knew I was not\nguilty of the charge that was laid and the accusation and what happened at that\ntime.&nbsp; However, waiting for seven years\nand people forming their own opinions, whether they believe or not, I am happy\nthat it came to this stage. I am asking that it goes out there for people to\nre-assess and reform their opinion because there is a lot of people who have\ndifferent views on it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reid, who was a deacon in the Assemblies of God Church, said\nhe was forced to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has been devastating even my son was barred from\nattending certain high school in Montego Bay because of the case. I know my\nreputation is not going to be repaired overnight if I may say but of course I\nam happy that the system still works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CVM, TVJ to pay Troupe, Reid awarded millions Barrington Flemming &#8211; Staff Reporter \u201cYou can\u2019t keep a good man down; thanks be to God I\u2019m free at last.\u201d Words of relief from Michael Troupe, former Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay and sitting councillor for the Granville Division, who, along with Sylvan Reid, councillor for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1684,1685,1556,1687,1682,1683,1686,30],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-assemblies-of-god-church","tag-commissioner-of-police","tag-councillor","tag-cvm","tag-michael-troupe","tag-sylvan-reid","tag-television-jamaica","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3275,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/3275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}