Gov’t settles case, compensates Cjea’s family

The New Democratic Party government has settled a lawsuit brought against the government in connection with the death of 18-year-old motorcyclist Cjea Weekes, who succumbed to injuries he suffered when he crashed his motorcycle during a high-speed police chase in Twenty Hill in February 2022.

Jomo Thomas, whose law firm, Thomas and Barnwell, represents Weekes’ family, commended the government for settling the case rather than putting Weekes’ family through the emotional distress of a trial.

He noted that Attorney General Louise Mithcell, acting on advice of Prime Minister Godwin Friday, had settled the case, even as the Ralph Gonsalves government had refused to do so despite Weekes’ mother being employed at Gonsalves’ official residence at the time of her son’s death.

“It would be remembered that Cjea Weekes’ mother worked … at the official governmental residence of former Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and, for whatever reason, the government never sought to settle that case,” Thomas said on Thursday in his weekday commentary, Plain Talk, on Boom FM.

“So, I want to pay tribute to the current attorney general, Louise Mitchell and the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Godwin Friday, for making the decision,” Thomas said.

He said the government decided to settle two days before the trial was to begin on Wednesday.

“… but they saved the family the agony of going to court and retelling and reliving that story.”

Weekes, an Argyle resident, died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Feb. 6, 2022, four days after suffering paralysing injuries that he told his mother were sustained when a police vehicle ran him over while pursuing him on his motorcycle in Twenty Hill, South Leeward.

His death came two days after doctors told his mother, Natasha Weekes, that he was paralysed from the chest down and also had a broken spine and left leg.

Natasha Weekes, a domestic worker who was employed at the official Residence of the Prime Minister at the time of the incident, died on March 5, 2025.

In the days after the incident, while her son was still in the hospital, she told iWitness News that he had told her that police had pursued him in their vehicle after he and a friend failed to comply with their instructions to stop.

Cjea Weekes and another friend, identified as “Dusty”, reportedly failed to stop because they did not have their learner’s permit on them, as required by law. However, they had a letter “L” affixed to their motorcycles as the law also demands.

A coroner’s inquest concluded last October that Weekes’ death was a result of misadventure. However, speaking shortly after the end of the judicial proceeding, Thomas, who had a watching brief in the inquest, criticised how Corlene Samuel, an inspector of police, led the evidence at the inquest.

In his commentary on Tuesday, Thomas said Weekes “was not killed once.

“Cjea was killed twice,” he said, noting the conclusion of the coroner’s inquest, which he said  Don’t forget that “caused outrage in St. Vincent and the Grenadines because the whole country knows that the police killed CJ.

“The police chased Cjea to his death. The police were directly responsible for his death. We are convinced that a court would have found that Cheslon Scott, the police officer who was driving that vehicle, was negligent and reckless.”

Thomas noted Weekes’ age and emphasised that Weekes was riding his bike when the police began chasing him.

“He didn’t murder anybody, didn’t rob anybody, didn’t rape anybody. He was not an escaped prisoner, and had he been convicted in court.”

The lawyer said that had Weekes been taken to court for a traffic offence for which the police were allegedly chasing him, “he would have paid probably $250”.

“So, there was no reason for the police to chase him,” Thomas said.

He noted that Twenty Hill resident, Shillingford Douglas, who witnessed the chase, said that at the time, both Cjea and the police vehicle were moving at high speed and that the police vehicle was no more than a foot or two behind Weeke’s dirt bike.

Thomas said that apparently neither Weekes nor the police driver knew that the paved road ended suddenly.

“So Cjea, not knowing the road, on his bike, flew over at the end of the paved road, and the police vehicle went over behind him.

“And Cjea told his mother that the police vehicle had rested on top of him,” Thomas said.

He said that Andine Douglas told the coroner’s inquest that when she got to the scene, Weekes was lying on the ground and the white t-shirt he was wearing had on what appeared to be tyre impressions.

“So, there was some truth — or let me put it differently, what Cjea told his mother was verified by Andine Douglas.

“But we must remember as well — and this is why some people don’t have any conscience, you know, because I don’t know how they would support Ralph Gonsalves at this point,” Thomas said, referring to the Douglases.

“Andine told the coroner’s inquest that she got a call saying she must come to see the prime minister. She went to see the prime minister, they demanded her phone, they took the pictures off the phone, and the phone never worked again. Whatever they did to the phone, they disabled the phone,” Thomas said, recounting Andine Douglass’ testimony to the inquest, which ended in October.

“So, the phone never worked again, yet that government, that prime minister, refused to advise his attorney general to settle…” Thomas further said of Gonsalves, adding, “So again, tribute to the attorney general and this government for settling the case.”

The lawyer noted that no amount of compensation could bring back a life.

“… if we were to release what it was settled for, you would know that it is not an enormous amount of money, but nonetheless, the family can feel some sense of contentment that ‘Boy, our son died, we pursued his cause, and we were able to get the government to settle, to get the state to settle’,” Thomas said.