Another hung jury prolongs agony

George Harris with his partner Nii Enoka and son Julius Harris, taken in 2002.

The plot in Manukau Memorial Gardens cemetery where George Tipene Harris was laid to rest in 2004 still awaits its headstone.

The reason, his family explained this week, is that the story of George's death is incomplete.

"We bought his headstone a long time ago," his father, Paiti, told the Herald. Nothing has been written on it, he says quietly. "We are waiting."

Their patience was further tested this week when a High Court jury again failed to reach a verdict. That makes one death, six years, two apparent confessions, three court cases, two hung juries and a blank headstone.

The agreed facts of the death of George Harris, aged 24, are that at about 4.30am on October 3, 2004, he was struck by a street-sweeping truck in Great South Rd, Manukau while running from an off-duty policeman who had earlier arrested him for trying to grab his cellphone from his pocket. Both men were intoxicated.

What is disputed - and has been the subject of three court cases - is the allegation that Mr Harris was fleeing from a beating at the hands of Constable Clinton Hill.

In March 2008, the Herald broke the story of an alleged cover-up after hearing that an off-duty policeman had "beaten the crap out of him". But that's getting ahead of the story.

What was recorded in police statements at the time and soon after told to the Police Complaints Authority (now the Independent Police Conduct Authority) was that Mr Harris had been put in the back of a police car on the side that wasn't child locked and that mistake had enabled him to escape and run in front of the truck.

That was the story the coroner also heard, sworn on oath by Constable Hill and Benson Murphy and Reuben Harris, the two constables who were in the patrol car that picked up Mr Hill and his prisoner.

Members of George Harris' family weren't convinced. "Right from when we were planning the funeral," says his sister, Julie, "Dad was always saying something was wrong."

Mr Harris had one conviction (possession of an offensive weapon), hardly a hardened criminal. "George was cheeky, easy going, a bubbly personality," says Julie.

Nii Enoka was the love of his life. They met aged 15 when he joined her Cook Islands dance group. What caught her eye? "His smile," says Nii. Their son, Julius, was born in 2001.

It turned out that Reuben Harris and maybe Murphy were distant relatives of George Harris' family, though they had never met. Whether that had anything to do with it, the family became aware there were witnesses "who were reluctant to say what really happened".

That changed three or four years after Mr Harris' death. Word spread that he had been fleeing a beating and in 2008 Superintendent Malcolm Burgess was tasked with conducting an inquiry. Hill was charged with manslaughter and assault and - with the on-duty constables - conspiring to defeat the course of justice.

Reuben Harris and Murphy pleaded guilty, and apologised to Mr Harris' family for lying. They were sentenced to 15 months' jail, reduced on appeal to home detention. Both have left the police.

At their sentencing, Judge Charles Blackie said there were two victims. "The victim's family, and the New Zealand community as a whole who have put such trust in our police officers to uphold the law and do the duty that they swore they would do on graduating out of police college."

The men later gave evidence Hill, who had been on a pub crawl with his brother, was angry with George Harris who, in trying to snatch his cellphone, had ripped the constable's pocket. They said Hill told them to drive to a secluded area, told Murphy to get out of the car and then gave Mr Harris a hiding.

Hill has always denied there was a beating, that Mr Harris died as the result of an accident while escaping.

At trial last year Hill, who is still a police officer, was acquitted of manslaughter but the jury couldn't decide on the other two charges and he went on trial again on those this month.

John Haigh, QC, representing Mr Hill, highlighted discrepancies in the detail of evidence but told the jury he had no idea why two police officers would confess to a serious crime the defence says never happened.

Hill was supported in court by family members. He told the Herald he had been instructed "by the boss" not to comment.

In the shade trees in front of the High Court at Auckland, while the jury was deliberating, Julie and Nii reflected on all that had happened.

Julius is now a 9-year-old with no real memory of his father. He attended court this week wearing his best shirt (the one with the big ninja-style print), accompanied by some of his seven aunts and uncles, a great-aunt and his grandparents.

"It's been hard on the family," says Julie, who had taken holidays from her job at a healthcare company to sit through the trial. "Mum and Dad separated for a while. I guess it tore them apart."

She spoke of this being the last trial, the last piece of a jigsaw. "We know nothing will replace George. We want to put the headstone on his grave. That is why we want closure."

After nine hours deliberating, the jury told the judge they were impossibly divided. Hill was released on bail to appear again in March by when the Solicitor-General will have decided whether to try the case for a third time. That would be unusual but not unique.

Meanwhile, the tablet waiting to adorn George Harris' grave stays blank.