They each pleaded not guilty to one charge of assaulting Mr McPeake with a weapon in a trial largely about whether the force used in trying to apprehend him was appropriate or excessive, but the prosecution accepts that at 179kg he was morbidly obese, in ill-health, had taken drugs, and was suicidal. It's also agreed nothing any officer did had a "causal link" to the death.
Closing addresses start today, and the jury is expected to retire tomorrow to consider the verdicts.
Evidence in the court shows six officers advanced on Mr McPeake's two-door Honda CRV, with the acting sergeant in a patrol car making voice appeals to Mr McPeake to get out of the vehicle, which an officer had found at 12.49am while police were looking for Mr McPeake.
When he did not get out an assault on the vehicle was launched, with the windows being smashed, and OC Spray and Tasers used on the man before dogs also entered the vehicle. Mr McPeake was ultimately forced out, began vomiting as he lay on the ground, and died despite first aid from police and ambulance staff.
Mr Buck, who had also reviewed the statements of seven officers at the scene, said the plan for the arrest was a good one, but appeared to have no contingency if Mr McPeake were to refuse to comply with requests or resisted the offices. At one stage he referred to the planning as "entirely deficient".
Up to the point the windows were broken, Mr McPeake was showing passive resistance, Mr Buck believed. But he said there was "nothing more than active resistance at best" thereafter, rather than being "assaultive" as he did such things as shut the driver's door after it was opened by an officer, and clasped the muzzle of one of the dogs.
He told Mr Vanderkolk that if it were thought Mr McPeake could be armed with a crossbow, as some of the officers feared, an "assault" on the vehicle was not the "appropriate tactic", compared with that of cordon and containment, more voice appeals, and possible introduction of the armed offenders squad, which was not used on the night.
It had been said the advance on the vehicle followed the activation of the vehicle's windscreen wipers during the voice appeals and that some took it as an indication Mr McPeake may have been about to try to drive off.
Mr Buck was challenged by Ms Adams, who, representing the most junior of the accused, highlighted the assessments were made after Mr Buck and two other vastly experienced officers had viewed recordings of the incidents several times, in contrast to the inexperience of her client, who during the events used and saw a Taser in use for the first time.
During the incident, acting sergeant Glenn Baker had to back-off after getting glass in his eye.