Death in cell: Officers ‘negligent’

Trio failed in duty of care, says Crown

Three Ha¯wera police officers had more than two hours to provide medical assistance to a man who would later die in their custody, a court heard yesterday.

It’s that timeline that forms one of many issues a jury of five men and seven women will have to consider during the officers’ trial in the High Court at New Plymouth, which is set down for four weeks.

The officers — who all have name suppression — are charged with manslaughter in relation to the death of Allen Ball.

Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke alleged the officers were grossly negligent in their duty of care to the victim and that this negligence was a causal factor in his death, thereby committing manslaughter.

The manslaughter charge relates to the officers allegedly failing to provide the necessities of life, namely medical attention.

If they had provided medical attention, the Crown alleges, it may have saved Ball’s life.

Clarke told the court how the officers were called to a family harm incident and ultimately handcuffed Ball and placed him into the back of a police car.

As he was being driven back, he began to snore. On arrival at Ha¯wera Police Station, Ball couldn’t be woken by the officers while he was sitting in the back of the patrol car.

It eventually took six people to carry Ball into a cell in the station on a blanket.

Ball’s time at the station and inside the cell was captured on CCTV; including a sound recording of what was said by the officers.

Once in the cell, he was placed on the floor in the recovery position. He continued to snore and didn’t respond to any pain-compliance techniques.

Clarke said Ball was unconscious at the time he arrived at the station and at that point should have been taken to the 24-hour Ha¯ wera Hospital, which was just a five-minute drive away.

Clarke said Ball continued to remain unresponsive while on the cell floor.

The Crown alleges that during the time that he arrived at the station — between 11.46pm on May 31, 2019, and by the time an ambulance was called at 2.26am — neither of the officers opted to call for medical assistance.

“If he had been provided medical care between 11.46pm and sometime before 2am that morning he would have survived a drug and alcohol overdose,” Clarke told the jury.

As Ball lay on the floor of the cell, he was pronounced dead at 2.53am.

His cause of death was due to fatal quantities of alcohol, tramadol and codeine.

Clarke said the officers had owed Ball a duty of care given he was in their custody and that was to provide treatment in a humane manner.

The officers knew that Ball had drunk a large amount of alcohol prior to his arrest and that he had threatened to commit suicide, and all three knew that he didn’t respond to subsequent pain-compliance techniques.

All three knew that Ball couldn’t be woken in the car, or once placed in the recovery position in the cell.

After entering his intoxication in the police NIA system as “extreme”, Officer B and C then opted to “blatantly ignore” an alert that came up on the computer screen.

That alert said to arrange for the person to be taken to hospital.

In order to continue through the NIA alert system, the officer had to click “OK”, which he did.

Ball was checked on many times throughout the morning by officers.

The checking involved everything from an officer looking into the cell, leaning over Ball, and kicking him in the foot. The officers could also hear Ball snoring during his time in there.

Clarke also described some of the comments made by the officers, which included “the idiot was f ****** wasted by the time he got here”, that Ball was making “happy noises” in reference to his snoring and that he was “very 1K”, which means “drunk”.

It wasn’t until another officer entered the cell, followed by Officer B who said: “get the ambo”, that the call for an ambulance was made at 2.26am.

The trial opened in the High Court at New Plymouth yesterday morning.

It is being overseen by Justice Susan Thomas.

The Crown will call 24 witnesses over the four weeks the matter is set down for.

There were several supporters in the public gallery, including Police Association president Chris Cahill.