He might've blasted ACT Policing and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, but Canberra Raiders boss Don Furner has praised his players for the way they tried to de-escalate the situation during Jack Wighton and Latrell Mitchell's arrest
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Furner reiterated his call for DPP senior prosecutor Sam Bargwanna to apologise to the NRL stars, going on 2GB to again air his grievances on Thursday.
That apology's yet to come with The Canberra Times contacting the DPP to see if it would be forthcoming, but there was no response.
Wighton and Mitchell had all their charges dismissed in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday in the wake of a senior police officer giving "false evidence".
It led to Furner unleashing on both the police and the DPP on the courthouse steps for wasting taxpayers' money after he'd repeatedly asked both parties to dismiss the charges - which included fighting in a public place.
Wighton was still coming to terms with the findings and the nine-month debacle when contacted by The Canberra Times.
He said he would elaborate on his statement from out in front of the court in the coming days.
![Raiders CEO Don Furner (front) has again called for the office of the DPP to apologise to NRL stars Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Raiders CEO Don Furner (front) has again called for the office of the DPP to apologise to NRL stars Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/reqbnGrLXyZFax2TwSi3Na/ec601b6f-3465-4346-9280-62b70bc74b05.jpg/r0_520_5200_3455_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
CCTV and police body camera footage of the alleged Civic fight in February was revealed following the hearing, which showed what actually happened when a large group of Raiders and NRL stars were out celebrating Wighton's 30th birthday.
It also showed how Raiders co-captain Elliott Whitehead, Zac Woolford, Hudson Young and Matt Timoko reacted as the police forced Mitchell to the ground and handcuffed him - before then also arresting and handcuffing Wighton.
Whitehead and Woolford repeatedly tried to de-escalate the situation, with the Raiders skipper stating officer "233" was "out of order" and had "escalated" the incident.
Despite the heart-breaking cries for help from Mitchell as he was being pinned to the ground, the Raiders players remained calm and never became physical.
That was one thing that made Furner happy about the incident.
"Yeah of course. [The players] couldn't believe it either. They were saying, 'What did they do?'" he said.
"Absolutely they were trying to de-escalate it and that was brought out in the court case."
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Furner said the players were given plenty of education on how to handle themselves if they were targeted by members of the public, including the police.
He said the Raiders had always happily given their time to the police when asked.
It's the third time Raiders players have been unfairly targeted, with Tom Starling and Curtis Scott both getting dragged through the court system only to be found the victims of police behaviour.
The NSW Police investigation into the police "assault" of Starling was still ongoing - nine months after the Raiders player was cleared.
Furner took to the radio to double down on his calls for an apology from Bargwanna.
That's in part due to a letter from the senior prosecutor which said if Wighton pleaded guilty and made a public apology to the police and the community then they would consider a lenient sentence.
"Our players do a lot of programs with the NSW and ACT [police]," Furner said on 2GB.
"That's why it was particularly disappointing ... I know how much Jack's done in the community.
"That's why I was so frustrated. No one's come out and said anything and I still publicly call on DPP Bargwanna to come out and publicly apologise to Jack and Latrell."
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