Lawyer Charles Richardson has used his Facebook page to claim elements within Bermuda Police Service have “declared war” on him.The 39-year-old was charged in Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning with publishing defamatory material about Detective Inspector Robert Cardwell in a Facebook status update last May.On Friday evening, in response to a comment from a wellwisher, he posted a message about the criminal case.“I know, and everybody knows, that this is ALL about the fact that by the very nature of what I do and how well I do it, some elements within the Bermuda Police Service have declared war on Charles Richardson,” he wrote.“Do you think that if I was a bad/ineffective attorney they would be coming at me like this?”Mr Richardson said he believed no one in Bermuda had been charged with criminal defamation for more than 75 years, adding it no longer existed as a criminal offence “in most other civilised countries” including “our mother country Britain”.“Are they serious?” he wrote. “In this climate of rampant lawlessness and serious crime, the people of Bermuda’s money is being used to pursue a complaint which, under normal circumstances, would be the subject of civil proceedings.”Det Insp Cardwell was the officer who led an investigation into Mr Richardson in 2009, when 8.2 grams of cannabis and 0.71 grams of cannabis resin were found at his home in Club Road, Smith’s.Mr Richardson pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession on March 31 and was given a three-year conditional discharge.In July, the conditional discharge was replaced with a conviction and fine apparently at Mr Richardson’s own request.It is understood he asked for the conditional discharge to be revoked because of the limitations it placed on his travel, affecting his ability to visit his young sons in the UK.He declined to enter a plea when the summary offence of unlawfully publishing defamatory material was put to him by Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner on Friday.The charge included the alleged defamatory material, which read: “This detective inspector really has it in for me.“Why on earth Robert Cardwell has taken an unhealthy interest in me is astonishing...I really hope it ain’t because I’m good at what I do and I’m black...that would make him vindictive and racist...could it be?”In his Facebook message posted on Friday, Mr Richardson said of Det Insp Cardwell: “Since he is a cop, it seems that he is privileged enough to use the taxpayers’ money to pursue me for a matter which everybody else would have to go and pay their own lawyer to deal with.“Why is the people’s money being used? Why isn’t he spending his own if he is so offended? And furthermore, it is ALLEGED that I questioned whether he could be racist...not that I said he was...but that I questioned whether he could be?“Are we serious? In the year 2011, a person is not free to question whether he has been treated in a certain manner because he might be racist? Wow...”Mr Richardson, of Juris Law Chambers, is due to appear again in court on Friday.A BPS spokesman said yesterday: “There will not be any comment forthcoming as the case is currently before the court.”