Trendy pub couple’s ugly police clash at mansion: court
Exclusive: Bodycam video of trendy hotelier couple’s ugly drunken clash with police at their mansion in a rich Sydney suburb has played in court.
EXCLUSIVE
Bodycam video of trendy hoteliers Pippi and Juzzy Drew’s ugly drunken clash with police outside their mansion on the street of an exclusive Sydney suburb has been played in court.
In the video, the couple scream and swear and Mr Drew wrestles with officers as they are handcuffed and placed in caged police wagons.
At one point Pippi Drew screams blearily, “We’re arseholes. You f***ing f***ed us up. I’ve got the best lawyers, I’ve got the best lawyer in Sydney.”
When she is placed in the paddy wagon she bangs on the door continually, yelling “let me out, let me out”.
In the police footage Mr Drew, who is 195cm tall and weighs 120kg, rolls around on New South Head Road outside his $2 million Rose Bay home repeatedly screeching “Aargh” as neighbours come out to watch.
The court heard the incident occurred between 6am and 6.30am on Friday February 21 this year, after Mr Drew called triple-0 to report that his wife had assaulted him, and was armed with a chair.
He warned that he might retaliate if she didn’t stop and disclosed his height and weight.
The video was played at the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday at the hearing before Magistrate Julie Huber.
Mr and Mrs Drew – who run the trendy Cauliflower Hotel at Waterloo – are facing criminal charges arising from the incident, to which they have pleaded not guilty.
Justin Anthony Drew is charged with three counts of assault police officer in execution of duty cause actual bodily harm and one count of resist or hinder police in the execution of duty.
He has an AVO out against his wife, who has been charged under her maiden name, Pippi Susan Billingham.
Ms Drew has been charged with one count of resist or hinder police in the execution of duty.
The couple, who have pleaded not guilty to all charges were represented by former Supreme Court judge, Greg James, SC, and his two sons, Evan James and Liam James.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant H. Mullan played body cam footage from four police officers, and the triple-0 call and read a transcript of the VKG police radio report.
The radio report said a person had been assaulted by his partner, Pippi Drew, 45, and that “she smacked him in the head with a phone” and was “armed with a chair” and “if she keeps going he’ll have to retaliate”.
On the triple-0 call, Justin Drew can be heard saying, “yeah mate, I just got hit in the head by a phone. I just got belted.
“I’ve got nowhere else to go mate, I just can’t deal with it anymore.
“I won’t hurt anyone, I won’t escalate, but eventually she’s going to push me.”
It is just four years since Mr and Mrs Drew’s beachfront wedding at Rose Bay and their transformation of the Cauliflower Hotel with a rooftop Caribbean-style cocktail bar for singles.
The bodycam footage begins after 5.35am on the day in question, when it is still dark outside and cars are travelling past with their lights on.
Hearing loud shouting from within, four police officers entered the Drews’ five bedroom, four bathroom house, and found the couple yelling at each other in the kitchen.
Constable Lachlan Trethowan said both were “well affected by alcohol” and he could “smell alcohol on (Ms Drew) and in the kitchen”.
He told the court Ms Drew was “unsteady on her feet, had heavily bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils and repeated herself in conversation multiple times”.
While officers interviewed her in the kitchen, Constable Robertino Pranic spoke to Mr Drew in the living room.
Mr Drew stated after arguing with his wife he had gone out for three hours and when he returned she hit “me over the head with a phone”.
Looking dazed, he slumps back on a large sofa and says repeatedly “I am very glad you are here” and adds “I just want it to stop”.
Asked if his wife had been drinking, Mr Drew said “we both have” and tells the officer “I’m sorry for wasting your time. I’m not threatened and I won’t be hurt”.
After speaking with his supervising sergeant on the phone, Constable Pranic tells Ms Drew he has “an official direction to go to Waverley Police Station for an AVO”.
The constable says, “You guys have been having an argument and at some time it has got physical”.
With the sound of Mr Drew shouting in the background, he tells Ms Drew “it’s not up for debate, grab your wallet, grab your phone”.
Mr Drew tells police, “you piss me off. It’s a lie mate, its bulls**t, you are trying to make something out of nothing”.
As the four police try and get Ms Drew outside, both she and her husband are shouting at the officers.
Pippi Drew shouts: “Can I cuddle my husband? Juzzy, Juzzy, Juzzy, Juzzy, Justin, I love you … I’m sorry that it happened.”
The court heard Ms Drew “agreed to be taken by police” but her husband stood up and said, “you’re not f***ing taking her with you”.
The officers get her outside to the back of the paddy wagon and Justin Drew comes right up to Constable Pranic yelling.
The constable pushes him back and then Mr Drew grabs the constable’s shoulder, the officer grabs his and they fall to the ground.
Constable Trethowan told the court: “Drew followed us and continued to shout and yell” and said that Ms Drew was “resisting” being placed in the paddy wagon.
“She was placing her hands on the side of the door to stop herself entering the vehicle,” he said.
He told the court Constable Pranic used a police force technique, called a check drill, to put Ms Drew in the wagon.
He said Mr Drew was pushing Constable Pranic back, was waving his arms around and then the two of them and a third male officer wrestled him to the ground.
On the ground, he said, Mr Drew “was kicking out his feet and legs towards police” and rolled onto his stomach, placing a hand and his phone underneath him as he swore and screamed.
As officers wrestled with Mr Drew on the road, trying to handcuff him, Pippi Drew screams, “you can’t do that to my husband, stop it, stop it … f*** you.
“I’m not drunk, I’m not drunk, get off him, I love him.”
Handcuffed and writhing on the road, Mr Drew screams repeatedly “Aargh” and “you’re hurting me”.
Constable Trethowan said after the encounter he felt immediate pain in his right elbow, forearm and lower back.
The scene continued for many more minutes with more neighbours gathering around as the skies lighten.
Mr Drew continually asks why his wife is under arrest, and officers tell him she is not but is being detained over an AVO being taken out against her.
Eventually the officers get both Drews into separate police wagons.
The court heard that while in the back of the wagon before the door was closed on her, Ms Drew said, “please take us because we’re arseholes. we f***ing f***ed up. Go for it.”
They are taken off to Waverley Police Station.
On the bodycam video, neighbour Vincent Paver tells the officers he’s willing to give a statement to help “if there’s any complaint about police brutality”.
A video Mr Paver took of the incident from his balcony flat which overlooked the Drews’ house from across the road was played to the court.
At the police station, Constable Pranic told the court, Pippi and Justin Drew were considered too intoxicated to be interviewed.
Under cross-examination by Greg James, Constable Pranic agreed that he had pushed Mr Drew but said he “felt physically threatened”.
“He came right up to my face, he stood over. I felt he was going to strike me,” he said.
He agreed with Mr James he had used a baton to get Mr Drew’s second arm around the back to be handcuffed.
Asked if he knew Mr Drew had a longstanding shoulder injury, Constable Pranic said he didn’t.
Mr James told the constable “you were taking his wife by force in a caged vehicle to the police station … she was entirely co-operative”.
Constable Pranic: “She was co-operative inside the house. Once we got outside, she was no longer co-operative.”
He said he sustained swelling over his right eye after the scuffle with Mr Drew and cuts and abrasions on his forearm.
Also under cross-examination by Greg James, Constable Trethowan said he believed the officers had the right to enter the Drews’ house because he believed it was an “emergency”.
Mr James questioned whether the police had the powers under the relevant legislation to enter the property and whether Ms Drew had been under arrest or just “detained”.
The Drews’ court hearing will continue tomorrow.
According to the Cauliflower Hotel website “Justin and Pippi Drew took over Waterloo’s Cauliflower in mid-2015.
They opened the Forgotten Cask Rum and Cocktail Bar, an “island-themed” bar on the Cauliflower’s rooftop for singles “date night” parties.
“The Drews also operate Big Island Operations, holding the exclusive rights to import St Lucia Distillers rums,” the website says.