Philipsburg:--- Chief of Police Peter de Witte has sent an advice to the Minister of Justice advising the Minister to take disciplinary actions against a police officer who arrested Cimarron Marlin on February 7th 2011.De Witte said police internal affairs conducted an investigation into the allegations made by Marlin some weeks ago. Marlin told several media outlets that he was abused by police but on two occasions when Marlin met with members of the police management team he did not substantiate the allegations of abuse by the officers.
Marlin met on Thursday afternoon with the police management team where he was informed of the outcome of the investigation.
The top cop said Cimarron Marlin was suspected of smuggling illegal items into the police holding cells. "Because he was suspected of attempting to smuggle illegal items into the police holding cell, he was arrested."
However, the officer who arrested Marlin failed to read him his rights, grant him a phone call and to take him before the acting prosecutor, therefore disciplinary actions will have to be taken against the arresting officer for failing to follow proper procedures.
De Witte said members of the police management team met with Marlin on Thursday and informed him why he was arrested. The Police Management team has also agreed to dismiss all charges against Marlin since the arresting officer infringed on Marlin's rights during his detention.
SMN News learnt from reliable sources that Cimarron Marlin was standing at a certain location next to the police station and was allegedly communicating with detainees at the Philipsburg Police Station. The source said a string was hanging down from the holding cell into a plant pot outside of the police station when Officer Robert James saw him and decided to arrest him.
The source further explained that persons would go there and tie a sock with illegal items inside which is then pulled into the cell by the detainees. On the day in question, Cimarron Marlin was standing at the location communicating with detainees when Officer James overheard his conversation. SMN News further learnt by the time the officer got to the location Marlin had already left the location and was walking towards Kentucky Fried Chicken when the officer approached him and told him that he was going to arrest him.
The source said the officer saw the string that was hanging from the cell and he decided to arrest Marlin and conduct a cell search to see if illegal items were smuggled into the cells but police did not find any illegal items inside cells thus police had no evidence to show that Cimarron Marlin smuggled anything into the police holding cells.
