Man Sentenced to 3 Months’ Jail for Attacking ICA Officer While Drunk

When you’re walking through customs and an officer asks you to stop, you stop. 

Walking on would just be unwise and land you in even more trouble.

Fortunately, Robert Joel Trussell didn’t do that. Instead, he walked past the officers when they told him to stop, and then attacked them. 

Man Attacked ICA Officer While Drunk

On 1 November last year, after spending a day out with some friends and his wife at Lazarus Island, Trussell left the group while drunk and took a ferry back to Marina South Pier.

When he reached customs at about 6.30pm, he was directed to the manual customs clearance lane as he was not carrying any bags.

However, officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) noticed that he had a bulge in his shorts pocket and told him to stop.

At this point, Trusell had two options:

1. Stop
2. Stop

Yes, there’s really only one option here. But he ignored the officers and carried on walking out of the clearance lane towards Marina South Pier MRT Station.

When one officer tried to stop him, Trussell swung his arm towards him and pushed another officer against a steel column.

Both officers followed the 47-year-old to the MRT station, where a third ICA officer – a Staff Sergeant – noticed what was happening.

As he was about to cross the gantry gates, one of the officers pulled Trussell’s arm to stop him, and he retaliated by pushing the Staff Sergeant, causing him to fall.

The others eventually managed to pin Trussell to the ground, but continued to struggle and remained uncooperative as he was handcuffed.

One of the officers suffered a sprained wrist from the attack.

Jailed For Three Months

Yesterday (23 June), the American was sentenced to three months imprisonment after pleading guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant.

Two other similar charges, including using criminal force, were taken into consideration during sentencing.

In court, Trussell’s lawyer said he’d written an apology letter to the victims and wishes to give it to them in person.

The lawyer added that his client has lost his job and has not been able to leave Singapore, while his wife left in Jan this year.

He has not seen her since, and can’t afford to keep his daughter in school.

His lawyer said he’s “even resorted to sleeping outside a few times”, and has lost 15kg to 20kg due to stress and financial anxieties.

The judge, however, was unmoved.

“In your favour, I take into account the factors raised by your counsel — your remorse, plea of guilt and clean record. However, these do not mitigate against the seriousness of your offences,” she said.

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