Morgan allegedly struck Sinclair during an arrest while a police dog was latched onto him. Photo / NZME
A deadlocked jury has failed to reach a verdict on a police officer accused of assaulting a person he was arresting.
Whangārei tactical unit police officer Taylor Stephen Morgan, 30, was on trial in the Whangārei District Court for assault with a blunt instrument after Mathew Sinclair was injured during an arrest.
The jury had retired to begin its deliberations about midday on Friday and then was sent home for the weekend that afternoon. They resumed yesterday morning.
But about 1pm, Judge Gene Tomlinson received a message from the jury room saying jurors were “deadlocked” and unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Judge Tomlinson asked the jury if it was able to reach a majority verdict, to which it said it could not.
“We’ve now reached the stage I can discharge you and I intend to do so,” he said.
“It’s a tough business and it’s apparent to me you have gone about your task diligently and put real hard work into it.
The Crown had earlier alleged Morgan struck Sinclair twice - first with his fist and then with a 40mm sponge round launcher.
On January 10, 2023, constable Hayden Waetford and a colleague were patrolling Tauroa St in Raumanga when they spotted wanted man Nicky Lemon driving by.
Sinclair was in the car with Lemon, and the vehicle headed north up Kōtata Rise before spinning out and landing on a verge.
Lemon and Sinclair fled, prompting a response from Waetford, a police dog and the tactical unit which included Morgan.
Morgan and Waetford followed the dog, Caesar, and officer Joshua Van Der Kwaak into the mangroves where they located Sinclair lying in the mud.
Caesar latched onto his right arm, while Sinclair waved his left arm in surrender, saying, “You’ve got me”.
“We were told to cuff him before releasing the dog, so we approached,” Waetford said in evidence at trial.
“As we got closer, Taylor punched Sinclair on the left side of the head, cutting his eyebrow.”
Waetford stated Morgan then struck Sinclair with the barrel end of a 40mm launcher, hitting him on the left front of his skull causing a semi-circle laceration.
“I know what I saw,” Waetford affirmed under cross-examination.
When Sinclair was called to give evidence he said the assault “smoked him” and knocked him out.
Sergeant Craig Curnow told the trial that when he arrived on the scene, Sinclair was repeatedly asking, “Why did that cop hit me? Why was I assaulted?”
Curnow said he asked Waetford if what Sinclair claimed was true. He said Waetford nodded his head and said “yeah bro”.
Morgan opted to give evidence on day four of the trial and from the stand said Sinclair was resisting arrest.
He said he had used an “open-palm push” and that the launcher had swung around and hit Sinclair accidentally on the head.
In the Crown closings on Friday, prosecutor Danica Soich told the jury it was no coincidence the evidence Waetford and Sinclair had given was similar.
“It would be an astonishing coincidence if constable Waetford and Sinclair, two very different people, both imagined the defendant committing the exact same crime. An assault he says never happened.
“What are the chances Sinclair and Waetford wrongly remembered Taylor Morgan with two hands jabbing him on the head? The chances of that are zero,” Soich said.
Soich said the fact Morgan was a police officer was irrelevant and what he had done was a crime.
“Police are subject to the law, they can’t just do what they want and assault someone.”
Morgan’s lawyer, Arthur Fairley, said his client had been trained in the armed offenders squad, had a stellar career and would not assault someone in front of three eyewitnesses.
“That training tests a man for his ability under fire, is he going to be calm and cool-headed? He’s trained for this situation.
“Their [the Crown] case is out of the blue, he whacks Sinclair on the head. They’re saying for no apparent reason he betrays that intensive training?”
Fairley also submitted that Waetford and Sinclair’s evidence was unreliable as Waetford had said he was up to 20m behind Morgan and that Sinclair’s recollection of the positioning of the gun was incorrect.
“This is fundamental to an assessment of proof beyond reasonable doubt,” Fairley said told the jury.
“He’s said consistently, it was an accident.”
In discharging the jury yesterday, Judge Tomlinson said the fact a verdict could not be reached was not a negative reflection on the jurors themselves.
“It is a positive reflection you have gone about your task with such vigour, these things happen far more regularly than you think and people can be particularly polarised once the evidence is in front of them.”
A new trial date will be scheduled at a later date.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.