Tommy Lee Sparta filing lawsuit5 min read

Tommy Lee Sparta, the entertainer who has been accused by the police of being involved in lottery scamming, will be suing the State, and according to his lawyer, taxpayers could be left with a $20-million burden.

Arguing that Tommy Lee Sparta has faced discrimination, and that his rights as a citizen have been breached by the police who refuse to grant permits for shows on which he has been booked, Ernest Smith said he intends to use the court to make an example of the bad cops.

Smith said “You cannot restrain a man from getting employment unless he is prohibited from doing so by incarceration, Tommy Lee has been prevented on several occasions by certain police officers from engaging in his profession of entertainment. He has had to be pulled from several shows because police officers have threatened the organisers and the promoters to cancel their licences if Tommy Lee is on the show.”

Tommy Lee, also known as Uncle Demon, has been labelled a violent producer by the police. He is currently before the court on lottery scam charges. Although a travel ban has been imposed on him as a condition of his bail, the courts have, on at least three occasions, lifted the ban to allow him to travel overseas to perform.

Smith said “He has been abroad and performed, but he has been prevented from performing and earning in his own land because of police brutality,”.

The attorney said that the State will “have no defence to the claim” as it is clearly a breach of his constitutional rights.

In 2015, Tommy Lee Sparta was barred by the police from performing at Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay. The cops also listed him as a person of interest in a murder case, but he was never charged.

He said that police officers, by their conduct, are raping the treasury of money that could be used to provide services for poor Jamaicans.

Tommy Lee’s case is set for trial in the Home Circuit Court next month.