Cop on trial over Taser
Constable accused of assaulting a woman with zapper
Ayoung Auckland police officer is on trial accused of assaulting a woman with a Taser at near point-blank range after a high-speed chase led to a confrontation at the SkyCity Casino.
It was during the early hours of September 17, 2017 that Constable Sean Mathew Doak found himself in pursuit of a speeding Subaru car.
The chase began in Mt Eden, with the fleeing driver potentially reaching speeds of 200km/h, the court heard, forcing police to call off its pursuing ground units and tracking the white car with only the Eagle helicopter.
The pursuit eventually ended in the underground carpark of Auckland’s downtown casino after police spiked the suspect vehicle’s tyres.
It is what happened next which has led to Doak, 25, sitting in the Auckland District Court yesterday.
He was charged last year with assault with a Taser and of illegally presenting a restricted weapon.
Prosecutor Bruce Northwood said after pursuing police stopped the vehicle its male driver “bolted . . . leaving behind the young woman”. She was Mary Jane Takerei. Doak and his partner, Constable Florence Roberts, who had only been in the job a couple of weeks, were the first on the scene, the court heard.
But Doak quickly “took off, possibly looking for the driver”.
Roberts, who was hit in the face with some pepper spray from
Takerei, and other police officers who had arrived dragged Takerei by her feet from the car, Northwood said.
Takerei was restrained and “ceased to be any kind of threat to the police officers present”.
Doak then returned. He knelt beside Takerei with his Taser drawn before threatening to use the restricted weapon near her head as he attempted to extract information from her, Northwood alleged.
The young officer did not fire the Taser, Northwood said. “Not surprisingly, the young woman didn’t know where the young man had gone. She, however, was petrified. All she could do was hand over a name.”
CCTV footage played to the jury yesterday shows Takerei’s legs flailing as she lies on the ground while Doak kneels near her head.
Roberts told the court, however, she didn’t hear Doak threatening Takerei with his Taser or see him pressing it against her forehead and between her eyes as she claims.
The wanted driver, the court heard, was later found coming out of one of the elevators in the casino.
Doak and his partner were tasked with transporting Takerei home.
But Northwood said, “once again [Doak] drew his Taser in the [patrol] car” and presented it at Takerei.
He fired using the arc option, which did not shock Takerei.
“He let his professionalism slip badly that night,” Northwood said. “[Takerei] was no threat to him, to others . . . [Doak] used his Taser in two clearly unacceptable ways.”
But Doak’s counsel, Todd Simmonds, told the jury his client was simply “a young cop doing what cops are meant to do” in trying to extract information in the carpark.
He said the young woman had been “vigorously resisting arrest”.
Although the Taser was drawn and in Doak’s hands there was “no threat”.
Of events later in the patrol car, Simmonds said Doak accepts he pulled the trigger “for about a second”.
But Simmonds argued there is no evidence to suggest Doak presented the Taser at Takerei then.
“It was a breach of police policy, and he accepts that,” Simmonds said.
“He will have to answer to his bosses. You’re not here to be caught up in police policy.”
Northwood said the jury would hear evidence about the availability of Tasers for police officers, and how the deployment of the electric shock weapon is guided by written policy.
Superintendent Karyn Malthus, the Auckland City District commander, earlier said an internal police employment inquiry will be conducted pending the court outcome.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority is also carrying out its own investigation.
The trial is scheduled to conclude later this week.