Clinton Johnson pleads guilty to assault, obstruct Warwick police

Despite being told he was being detained, a father of two attempted to outrun police before tackled to the ground in explosive scenes at the Warwick Showgrounds.

Warwick man Clinton Johnson pleaded guilty to assault and obstruct police after a dramatic arrest at the Warwick Showgrounds.

A Warwick father who tried to outrun a cop who detained him to investigate reports of a person trapped in a caravan, later tried to bite and punch the same officer, a court has been told.

Clinton Lawrence Johnson tried to flee through the Warwick Showgrounds from police when they spoke to him over reports of a possible domestic violence incident.

The Warwick Magistrates Court was told the woman was locked in the caravan and claimed Johnson had the keys, but he denied that and said she was the one who had them.

Police told the 37-year-old he was being detained while they investigated and he instead fled, causing police to chase him on foot.

Johnson shook his head for much of the time magistrate Virginia Sturgess spent telling the court about the circumstances surrounding his offending.

“You were detained, which means you were not free to move around. However, you ran away,” she said.

“So you ran off into the yard and police yelled you were under arrest and chased you.

“You then kept running alongside of the house, along a gravel path you turned and picked up some gravel and threw it at police.

The police officer was hit with the gravel but continued to chase the father of two.

“You ran through the garden and they continued to chase you and cornered you near a tree, and you then threw a punch at the same police officer, narrowly missing him (before) you were tackled to the ground.

“Police have a difficult job to do, Mr Johnson and they shouldn't need to run after people, (and) they shouldn’t need to have to tackle people to the ground, and they shouldn’t have to have gravel thrown at them and punches thrown at them.”

The court was told Johnson also refused to put his hands behind his back and resisted police attempts to move his arms.

Ms Sturgess acknowledged he attended the Warwick police station a few days later and apologised to police.

Her Honour told the labourer there was clearly an ongoing drug problem in his life.

“You don’t have any offences of violence on your history, (but) you certainly have quite a few drug matters, in fact it is just about all drug matters on your history, other than one weapons offence,” she said.

“I can see you have had four probation orders as a result of some of those drug appearances, so one would say drugs have been a problem for you and that is also evident in your traffic history.”

Johnson pleaded guilty to assault police and two counts of obstruct police. He was fined $800.

Originally published as Clinton Johnson pleads guilty to assault, obstruct Warwick police