Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE GOVERNMENT has agreed to pay $2.7 million to Janine Cameron, the mother of Michael Gayle, the mentally-ill man who died as a result of injuries he received when he was beaten by soldiers and police at a curfew barricade in Olympic Gardens on August 21, 1999.
When the civil case came before Master in Chambers, Audrey Lindo in the Supreme Court yesterday, attorney-at-law Patrick Foster from the Attorney-General's Department and attorney-at-law David Johnson, of the law firm Piper and Samuda, announced that there was a negotiated settlement and that a consent judgment was entered in the matter.
After Gayle was severely beaten he was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where he died on August 23, 1999.
SEEKING DAMAGES
Cameron filed a suit in the Supreme Court seeking damages for assault, false imprisonment and breach of her son's constitutional rights.
Last year Michael Hylton, Q.C., recommended that there should be an out of court settlement.
A Coroner's jury had ruled in December 1999 that all the military and police personnel at the curfew barricade should be charged.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry, Q.C. reviewed the depositions and ruled in March 2000 that no one should be charged.
The human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice had taken a keen interest in
the case.
