Allegations of Unfair Treatment at Junior Calypso Contest Spark Legal Concerns

What started as a battle to decide this year’s best junior calypsonians could become a legal fight triggered by events off stage.

Yesterday morning, following the Scotiabank Junior Monarch Competition, Kareen Clarke, the mother of Trinity, a contestant in the calypso category, wrote on Facebook about an incident involving her daughter whom she alleged was “manhandled” by security at the Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, the site of the event, resulting in her being “unjustly penalised”.

Clarke spoke about the incident later in the afternoon during a conversation with co-host of Starcom Network’s Crop Over programme Fireworks, Ronnie Clarke, providing details of what happened and the emotional impact on her 18-year-old daughter. She added they had retained the services of King’s Counsel Michael Lashley to explore their legal options.

She wrote: “Last night at the gymnasium, in my absence, my daughter Trinity was involved in an unprovoked incident . . . .This left Trinity traumatised backstage. Legal action will be taken further regarding this matter.

“Without a proper investigation, Trinity was unjustly penalised for the incident, resulting in her placing in the 5th-8th position in the competition. This penalty was applied without her prior knowledge.”

She told Clarke she did not see any physical contact between the guard and her daughter which caused Trinity to “cry profusely” but the contestants, their parents, the public who were there, did.

“This situation was such a brawl,” she said.

Clarke repeated on air that she felt the incident affected Trinity’s scores.

However, chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Carol Roberts, in responding to Clarke’s allegations on Fireworks, said investigations indicated a different account.

She said initially, after seeing the social media post, her statement would have noted that “given when the incident is alleged to have occurred, which was during the intermission, that there was no way that the subsequent results could have been affected by any incident outside of the performance space”, as all the calypso contestants would have performed by then.

Requested report

However, Roberts said she was forced to go on air after “seeing subsequent posts, and hearing some of the comments during Fireworks this afternoon”.

She said she had requested a report from the music officer involved, Kevin Moore, who, in turn, asked for a report from Lowrey Worrell, “one of the prime witnesses to what occurred, and to the security officer in charge whose name I would not call on the air”.