Charges have been filed against nine Auckland police officers after a man was wrongly detained, strip-searched and badly injured during an unlawful arrest two-and-a-half years ago.
Victim Daniel Bond has filed 23 charges in the North Shore District Court, which are now before a judge for consideration.
It follows an incident on the night of May 2, 2019, in which an officer mistakenly suspected Bond of drink-driving and arrested him when he refused to provide his details.
When Bond resisted arrest - which he was within his rights to do - a fracas ensued. An officer pepper-sprayed him, and backup officers restrained him with such excessive force he was left with a concussion and neck compression fracture. His phone was also smashed in the melee.
His truck was unlawfully searched and his dogs wrongly impounded, and Bond was later taken to a police station and forcibly strip-searched, despite his protestations.
Among the charges Bond filed is one of assault with a weapon, for an officer's use of pepper spray; and five of injuring with intent, for the injuries he sustained during his arrest.
Bond has also filed four charges of making an intimate visual recording, as it's alleged police stripped him naked in a room where a CCTV camera was present; and nine of kidnapping, in relation to his unlawful detainment.
The charges come after 30 months of frustration for Bond. Despite the police admitting it got it badly wrong that night, he has felt let down by their inaction and is still searching for answers.
An investigation into the incident by police conceded the officers involved made multiple errors, and they apologised to Bond for his experience.
However a follow-up investigation by watchdog the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) found multiple deficiencies in the police investigation.
It disagreed with the police's findings on the force used to arrest Bond, the damage caused to his cellphone; and the warrantless search of two vehicles following his arrest.
"There is no allowance under the Crimes Act for force to be used except to execute a lawful arrest... We think that, as the arrest was deemed unlawful, any subsequent use of force by Police was not only unlawful but also unjustified," IPCA Chair Judge Colin Doherty wrote.
"You were being unlawfully detained and were therefore entitled to resist by pulling away and struggling to get free from police. It was not reasonable for police to respond to this reasonable resistance with force."
The IPCA also found the police should have proactively offered Bond compensation for his damaged cellphone, and should have considered whether the officers were "criminally responsible" for the force they used.
The IPCA raised these issues with police, but the police told them they didn't agree. As the agency has no power to require police to alter their investigation or the outcomes reached, nothing changed.
In a statement last month, the police told Newshub its employment investigation was "thorough" and the incident had been addressed adequately with staff. A criminal investigation was never launched as the police's professional conduct team didn't deem it necessary.
Victim Support was also never offered to Bond because he "was not considered a victim under the Victim's Rights Act 2002".
