Trinidad’s Cro Cro to pay big $$ for defamation
Calypsonian Weston “Cro Cro” Rawlins defamed businessman Inshan Ishmael in one of his songs, and has been ordered to pay $250,000 in damages.
The ruling was made in a judgment delivered yesterday by Justice Frank Seepersad at the Waterfront Judicial Centre in Port of Spain.
Cro Cro was accused of defaming Ishmael on February 5, 2023, during an on-stage performance in which he sang a calypso titled “Another Sat is Outside Again” that allegedly named Ishmael.
At a hearing last December, Ishmael said there was no doubt in his mind that Rawlins had been “singing” about him in the calypso.
He claimed that the song, directly named, identified, and attacked him while encouraging others to attack him both verbally and physically and to financially abstain from patronising his businesses.
During the course of the proceeding Ishmael was cross-examined by Rawlins’ lead attorney Gilbert Peterson, SC.
Peterson suggested that his client was in no way singing about Ishmael but was instead generalising a situation.
Ishmael claimed Rawlins had mentioned his name when he sang the calypso and spoke of people “in the Bamboo” who were selling stolen car parts.
Ishmael is the owner of a business that imports and resells foreign-used vehicles. “As a result of the lyrics of the song the Claimant is now viewed as a criminal, a racist, and a thief,” attorney Richard Jaggasar had stated in the claim.
Rawlins also testified that he was singing of no one in particular but was simply pointing out some of the unlawful acts that were being committed by some business people in the country.
Rawlins denied he was singing about Ishmael. He also stated he had not given permission to anyone to record his performance and have it uploaded to social media.
However, in making the ruling yesterday, Justicd Seepersad said “Although there was no express prayer for exemplary damages, the evidence in this case has established that (Cro Cro) acted with cynical disregard to the Claimant’s right to have his reputation protected against a scathing attack.
(Cro Cro) had no empirical evidence which could have led him to form a genuine belief that the
Cro Cro
(Weston Rawlins) Claimant sold stolen car parts and it is possible to conclude that (Cro Cro’s) decision to attack the Claimant was motivated by a desire to teach the Claimant a lesson and by a belief that salacious and derogatory statements and the jab against the wider Indian community, would resonate with his fan base and possibly win him favour with calypso judges, who in the past, rewarded him with lucrative first prize purses for compositions which were less than complimentary to persons of East Indian origin or heritage.”