Dogs boss questions arrest options

DOGS BOSS: Police national dogs co-ordinator Todd Southall as a dog-handler in 2001.Yesterday he gave evidence in court based on Taser-camera images from a Napier arrest in which a man died.PHOTO/FILE

The use of dogs to get a wanted man out of his car has been questioned by the police national dog section in the trial of four police officers facing assault charges in Napier District Court.

But the evidence of Inspector Todd Southall, who based his opinion on Taser-camera images he had viewed, was also challenged by lawyer Susan Hughes QC, when she asked him if an officer at the scene, with a history of proven good judgement, was better placed to make a judgement than someone "sitting in an office watching a snippet on a laptop."

"Yes," said Mr Southall, one of the last prosecution witnesses in the trial of four Hawke's Bay officers charged with aggravated assault on 53-year-old, 179kg Gregory McPeake, who died during an early-morning arrest, made as he was hauled from his two-door Honda CRV after it was found in a Westshore Beach carpark at 1.49am on March 13, 2015.

Judge Phillip Cooper and Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk have, however, told the jury of six men and six women nothing the officers did had a "causal link" to the death of Mr McPeake, who had a heart condition, was regarded as "morbidly obese," had taken a lethal mix of drugs and was considered suicidal, after seriously assaulting his 76-year-old father about six hours earlier.

Questioned by Mr Vanderkolk, Mr Southall said the use of two dogs on the man sitting in his car resisting commands from police to get out - and after police had smashed the windows and an officer had managed to remove the key from the ignition - was "inappropriate".

He said Mr McPeake's actions were "only in response to police actions" and officers should have taken a step back and had one officer try to talk him out of the vehicle.

There was no need to "deploy" dogs into the vehicle, Mr Southall said, and added: "On this occasion I think it was just a wrong decision, and a wrong option."

Once the windows were broken there didn't seem in the images to be "very much communication" between the officers, he said in his evidence on the fifth day of a trial which started last Tuesday and which had been told that on-site officer-in-charge of arresting Mr McPeake had backed-off when he got glass in his eye.

The court had also been told that the six officers chosen to advance on the vehicle in the darkened carpark did not initially know whether Mr McPeake was in the vehicle, but were aware that if he could have had a crossbow.

One of the accused officers told a detective brought in from outside the Eastern Police District to investigate he was surprised his team was directed to approach the vehicle when it was thought the man could be armed with a crossbow.

"I think they are one of the worst weapons available," the officer told Manukau CIB officer Detective Sergeant Katie Smith, who yesterday read two hours of transcripts from interviews with the officer.

"Their penetration is ridiculous, I think they are very dangerous," the officer had said, recalling the moments he and other officers approached the vehicle, unsure whether Mr McPeake was in the vehicle or elsewhere in the area watching them, and unaware whether he had the weapon.

"I was shocked to be in that position to be honest," the officer had said. "When I saw where the vehicle was I knew we shouldn't have been there."

But it was the officers' duty to ensure the wanted man could not leave the area, said the policeman, who had also earlier attended the scene of the initial assault at an address on Mr McPeake's parents Prospect Rd, Hasting, which was itself a surprise, he said, calling it a "prosperous" area.

He went to Westshore after learning the vehicle had been found, and was in the party assigned to advance on the vehicle while acting sergeant Glenn Baker drove a patrol car to illuminate the scene amid loud-hailer appeals to Mr McPeake, advising he was under arrest and should get out of the vehicle.

When there was no response to multiple requests, other than movements within the vehicle officers interpreted as suggesting Mr McPeake may have been about to try to drive off, or been trying to grab a weapon, officers smashed its windows, and then used pepper spray and Tasers without apparent impact on Mr McPeake.

Flailing his arms, and having struck at least one officer, Mr McPeake was then challenged by the dogs, and ultimately ended face-down on the ground as police tried to secure cuffs.

The officer said he noticed the obesity of the man and decided a check on his health was needed, but Mr McPeake began to vomit, throwing some officers into panic as the officer called for a defibrillator and for an ambulance.

Despite his assurances that it would be all right if they followed what they had learned in their training, Mr McPeake died at the scene.
(Proceeding)