Police ‘escalated’ confrontation with tasered man, court rules, quashing convictions for biting police

NT POLICE officers who tasered an unarmed Aboriginal man inside a police station may not have been acting lawfully in the course of their duty and charges against him should have been thrown out, a court has ruled.

Police officers who tasered an unarmed Aboriginal man inside a police station may not have been acting lawfully in the course of their duty, a court has ruled.

NT POLICE officers who tasered an unarmed Aboriginal man inside a police station may not have been acting lawfully in the course of their duty and charges against him should have been thrown out, a court has ruled.

The Supreme Court heard Johanness Mangurra had voluntarily attended the Numbulwar police station in August 2019 when the officers realised he’d earlier been mistakenly released after a parole violation due to an administrative error.

Constable David Woodbury and Sergeant Tony Bennett escorted Mr Mangurra into a locked interview room and tried to explain the mix up, at which point a confused Mr Mangurra asked to speak to his lawyer.

Const. Woodbury said he could do so but only after they had cuffed him and put him in a cell, after which Mr Mangurra became increasingly distressed and began shouting and wailing.

Eventually Sgt Bennett pulled out his taser and ordered Mr Mangurra to turn around and put his hand behind his back but Mr Mangurra started yelling “Please, don’t kill me, don’t do that, my heart is f***ed”.

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After some further back and forth, Mr Mangurra was eventually tasered to his lower body and during the ensuing struggle he bit both the officers.

He was convicted in the Local Court of resisting arrest and assaulting police but his lawyers appealed that ruling and on Wednesday Supreme Court Justice Judith Kelly acquitted him on all counts.

Justice Kelly said the officers had other “reasonably available options” for dealing with the situation, including allowing Mr Mangurra to speak to his lawyer in the interview room, which would have avoided the need for the use of force.

“I agree with the appellant’s contention that, at each step, Sgt Bennett in particular escalated rather than de-escalated the situation,” she said.

“I have a reasonable doubt whether the police officers were acting in the execution of their duty when the appellant (bit them).”

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“It is a doubt which in my view the trial judge must, not might, have entertained on the evidence.”

Mr Mangurra’s lawyers did not appeal a guilty finding on a charge of disorderly conduct in a police station.

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