Jonty Mark Rosenow: Bendigo police pepper spray, strip man naked

A well regarded police officer’s drunk son told officers to “suck a fat d — k” after his Bendigo arrest. But his behaviour left him naked and blind.

Rosenow pleaded guilty to public drunkenness and assaulting a police officer. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The son of a police officer was forcibly stripped, pepper sprayed and left naked on the floor of a jail cell for eight hours after being caught drunk in Bendigo’s CBD.

The Bendigo Magistrate’s Court heard Jonty Mark Rosenow urinated in front of an officer while heavily intoxicated wandering in a Bendigo car park at 3.30am, March 31, 2020.

The officer approached the 25-year-old and asked for his name and address, which he refused.

Rosenow was arrested for public drunkenness and taken to police station by 4am.

There he refused a pat down and was ordered to remove his clothing.

“Suck a fat d — k,” Rosenow told officers.

CCTV footage showed the Rosenow threatening to assault officers and making shooting gestures with his hands.

Rosenow was forced to the ground as police started to strip him.

The man’s lawyer said the 25-year-old did not resist as his jeans, shirt and socks were removed, but when officers went for his underwear he began to panic.

Rosenow began to struggle and flail on the ground where he kicked an officer in the face.

He was pepper sprayed and left alone in his cell, naked and blind.

Rosenow spent eight hours in the cell with no treatment until he was released — his left eye still blinded by the spray.

The police prosecutor told the court Rosenow would not have been humiliated if he had consented to the pat down.

But Rosenow’s lawyer condemned the police’s aggressive approach to the young man, calling his treatment “extra-curial punishment”.

“There was no evidence in the police brief why a strip search was required,” his lawyer said.

His lawyer said Rosenow did not have complete recall of the night and acknowledged he “behaved like an idiot”.

He said Rosenow was a young man from an “outstanding background” who volunteered at his local football club and Righteous Pups Australia, which trains assistance dogs.

He said his father was a respected police officer, who passed away while Rosenow was a child.

Rosenow pleaded guilty to public drunkenness and assaulting a police officer on Wednesday March 17.

Magistrate Patrick Southey said his main concern was the assault, rather than public drunkenness, which had been scrapped as a crime earlier this year.

In February, the State Government passed historic legislation to decriminalise public drunkenness, a decision spurred on by the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day after she was taken to the Castlemaine Police Station in 2017.

Mr Southey placed Rosenow on a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered him to pay $300 to the court fund.