Magistrate James Lawton slams 'cruel and degrading' actions of ACT Policing officers

Magistrate James Lawton took aim at the pair's "outrageous" conduct on Friday as he dismissed a charge levelled at Dominic Doherty, saying police had obtained evidence of him refusing to undergo a roadside screening test after unlawfully assaulting him.

Police body-worn camera footage, tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court during Doherty's hearing, shows the two officers stopping the suspected drink-driver in Canberra's inner north in December 2020.

"Out of the car, mate. Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off. Get out of the car," one of the officers told Doherty while approaching the man's Ford Mustang on Limestone Avenue.

"Out! Out!" he added as he grabbed Doherty by the arm and pulled him from the vehicle.

The other officer then threw Doherty to the ground beside the road, tearing the man's shirt in the process.

"Hands behind your f---in' back now, c---," he said.

The pair then handcuffed Doherty, who cried out as the first officer screamed at him to "give me your arm".

While waiting for another police unit to arrive with a screening device to breath-test Doherty, the officers left the man lying face down in the gutter with his hands still cuffed behind his back.

Mr Lawton described this as "cruel and degrading" treatment, which he said was prohibited by the ACT's Human Rights Act.

"They behaved deplorably," the magistrate said of the officers.

He added that there was "simply no reason" for the officers to have pulled Doherty from his car and assaulted him when the man initially seemed to be complying with the "commands barked at him".

Mr Lawton said when a breath-screening device was brought to the scene and Doherty was directed to blow into it, still with his hands cuffed behind his back and initially still lying in the gutter, the suspected drink-driver appeared "frightened and disoriented".

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"Several times, he asks what is going on," the magistrate said.

The magistrate ultimately ruled the evidence gathered at the roadside inadmissible in light of police having just assaulted Doherty, saying it had been unlawfully obtained.

"A strong message needs to sent that this behaviour will not be tolerated," Mr Lawton said.

He accordingly dismissed the charge and ordered that a copy of his reasons for doing so be provided to ACT chief police officer Neil Gaughan.

Mr Lawton also said while video footage of the incident "speaks for itself", he considered the actions of the "physically and verbally aggressive" officers to be "outrageous".

Doherty remains before the court despite Mr Lawton's ruling on Friday because the magistrate declined to exclude the evidence police and prosecutors intend to rely on in relation to a second charge of failing to provide a breath sample.

Mr Lawton said this offence was alleged to have occurred at City Police Station after Doherty had been transported there in the wake of his arrest.

Doherty, represented by lawyer Tim Sharman, is due back before the court on that charge next Wednesday afternoon.

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