Judge orders release of Taser video
Graphic footage showing Gregory Mcpeake being hit by police Tasers in the final moments of his life has been released following a court order.
Stuff and other media organisations applied to the court for the footage after the trial of four police officers in the Napier District Court in 2016.
The application was opposed by the Crown, lawyers for the officers, and Mcpeake’s parents. It was supported by his daughter.
Judge Philip Cooper has rejected the objections, and found there were no grounds for withholding the footage. In allowing it to be released, he stressed it must be put in context.
The graphic footage shows the morbidly obese Mcpeake in the driver’s seat of his parked car as officers fire two Tasers at him. Tasers were deployed after pepper spray and a prolonged period of voice appeals were ineffective.
The footage, shot from cameras in the Tasers, records only the final few minutes of the incident, and ends before Mcpeake is removed from the car. He died shortly after being arrested.
It was stressed during the trial that there was no link between the actions of police and Mcpeake’s death. He weighed 179kg, had a serious heart condition and had taken a potentially lethal quantity of codeine.
‘‘Having presided over the trial, I can say that it is incontrovertible that the officers acted in good faith, and any suggestion otherwise would be highly actionable,’’ the judge said.
A jury took less than an hour and a half to acquit the officers.
The officers had interim name suppression throughout the trial. Their lawyers argued for permanent name suppression, but Judge Cooper found only one had grounds for it.
Those who could be identified were constables Rochelle Bryant and Alexander Simister, and Senior Constable Andrew Knox.
They were accused of assaulting Mcpeake, 53, in the early hours of March 13 last year.
The Crown claimed the officers used excessive force in making the arrest. The defence argued they acted appropriately given the information they had at the time.
The jury heard seven days of evidence. Witnesses included Mcpeake’s father Ray, 77, who spoke of how his son violently assaulted him with a weapon hours before he was arrested.
The jury heard from Mcpeake’s daughter Bianca, who said he was a chronic alcoholic who had told her several times that if he ever became really ill he would kill his parents and brother, then drive somewhere near water, take an overdose and die.
It was Bianca who confirmed something police had heard from Mcpeake’s parents – that he had once owned a crossbow. This was critical information and shaped much of what happened when police found Mcpeake at the wheel of his twodoor Honda SUV in an unlit car park on the beach edge at Westshore, Napier, at 12.50am.
Their big fear was that he might start the car and get away, and that he might have the crossbow.
The Crown’s view, presented by prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk, was that Mcpeake never presented a threat that warranted the use of force involving dogs or Tasers, and the officers should have negotiated with him further.
The Crown submitted that public interest was outweighed by ‘‘very high privacy interests’’. It was also concerned that the officers still had to face the Independent Police Conduct Authority and employment inquiries, and the footage might preempt findings.
Susan Hughes QC, on behalf of the officers, said the footage wrongly led to the assumption that their actions caused Mcpeake’s death.
The judge said the context in which the Tasers were used must be made clear in order to provide a fair, balanced and accurate report.
‘‘This is a case where the individual interest of those family members who oppose the release of the Taser footage must give way to the public interest,’’ he ruled.
He could not see how the footage would unfairly pre-empt any investigation into the officers.
‘‘I do not accept the submission that release of the Taser footage would adversely impact police operation effectiveness.’’