Bond told the court he had been at Fox Bar with friends when he went to his car to check on his dogs but when he returned to the bar, he ran into an incident with an unidentified person he claims was picking a fight with an elderly man.
Bond said the man came at him and he took him to the ground in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, he maintained he did not throw a punch.
When police arrived on the scene shortly after, the situation escalated and took a turn.
Bond said Sergeant Craig Curnow was not wearing a QID badge and when he asked for his number, the sergeant refused to give it.
“I had seen him earlier in the night poorly handling someone else and I wanted to make a complaint.
“He ended up saying his name was Craig, he gave his QID number really fast, phonetically, and I repeated it back to him and he said ‘It was wrong’, I asked again and he said ‘I’ve already told you,” Bond told the court.
CCTV played in court showed Curnow and Bond in inaudible discussions in the middle of the road before they moved kerbside and Constable Kelsey Jellick walking towards him telling him to go home when Bond began to yell “Don’t touch me.”
At this point the camera view was blocked by bystanders and police allege Bond bent Jellick’s fingers back which initiated his arrest.
Constable Hannah Goodmon gave evidence she saw Bond bend Jellicks fingers back and Curnow told the court he heard Jellick say “ouch” but did not see the assault.
Bond said no officer told him he was under arrest until he was pinned to the ground and Curnow is heard placing him under arrest for disorderly behaviour.
“I didn’t feel like I committed a crime, all I wanted was his badge number so I could make a complaint about him the next day. I just wanted him to identify himself but he didn’t have his badge number on him,” Bond said.
Bond is repeatedly heard saying “I don’t consent” and when his lawyer, Todd Luders asked why he was saying that he said, “Because it was an unlawful arrest.”
“She’s pushing me forward and saying ‘I will touch you’ and then comes up and starts trying to grab on me. I thought it was unlawful. None of them would identify the sergeant for me.
“She did not say I was under arrest for assault,” Bond told the court.
Under cross-examination by police prosecutor Stu Wilkes, Bond maintained the situation did not need to escalate the way it had.
“I was being smashed to the ground for simply asking for a badge number,” Bond said
“You simply could have gone with them without issue?” Wilkes put to Bond.
“They grabbed me pretty quickly. They didn’t tell me I was under arrest, they just grabbed me. I was still questioning what was going on, I felt like I was being unlawfully taken away.
“I was trying to gather what disorderly behaviour is that. Asking for a badge number?” Bond said.
When Bond was taken to the cells, police allege he kicked out at Constable Stephen Brown and also took a swing at Jellick which he denied.
It was the police prosecution case that Bond willingly participated in a street fight with an unidentified individual that multiple people had to break up. Police also say he assaulted two officers with applied force and the case came down to credibility.
“This is one of those cases where there’s no mystery to the charges. It’s a matter of assessing the witnesses and their credibility. If you find the arrest was unlawful, then we may have an issue,” Wilkes said in closing arguments.
Luders pushed for an unlawful arrest based on the argument, that the assault on Jellick never occurred.
“Curnow said he didn’t see it, he said he heard her say ‘ouch.’ His evidence is not reliable in regard to an assault.
“Officer Goodmon, we hear her say he’s ‘under arrest for disorderly behaviour’ which is at odds with her evidence and notes. She said she saw the assault, it would make sense she would say he’s ‘under arrest for assault.’
“If your honour is not satisfied the assault happened then I submit the arrest was unlawful therefore he’s not guilty of the rest,” Luders said in closing.
Jude Rzepecky has reserved his decision until mid-April.
Bond told the court he had previously been unlawfully detained by police in Auckland and still suffers from PTSD. In that case, his complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Authority was upheld and he was granted a private prosecution against eight officers in the North Shore District Court.
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.
