An Auckland police officer has gone on trial accused of threatening a woman who was already subdued on a carpark floor with a taser.
The Crown says Sean Mathew Doak also pulled his taser on the woman again, but this time activated it to make it spark while the pair were in the back of a patrol car.
The now 25-year-old's trial started this morning in the Auckland District Court.
Sean Mathew Doak is accused of threatening the woman while she was already on the ground.
Constable Doak faces one charge of assault with a weapon, and one charge of unlawfully presenting a restricted weapon.
The Crown says it was just after midnight in mid-September 2017 when the police tried to stop the Subaru car the woman was a passenger in.
The car was then driven into the SkyCity carpark in Auckland's CBD, at which point the driver took off and left the woman behind.
"The Crown says fairly early on and without difficulty the woman was appropriately restrained and ceased to be any kind of threat to police officers present," prosecutor Bruce Northwood told jurors selected on Monday morning.
He said the officer threatened the woman with his taser because he wanted to know where the man who took off had gone.
"She couldn't tell Constable Doak no matter how much threatening," he said.
It was later that the Crown says the officer recklessly used his taser again.
"There in the confines of a patrol car he activated the taser in a way that is referred to as arcing.... making characteristic sparking noises," Mr Northwood said.
He said Constable Doak "let his professionalism slip badly" in a situation where a woman was "no threat to him, to others or to herself.
But Constable Doak's lawyer, Todd Simmonds, told the jury that his client was "a good young officer".
He said there was no intention of threatening the woman on the ground of the carpark, and that he already had his taser unholstered.
Mr Simmonds said his client however accepts the taser was later arced in the patrol car, but there was no evidence to show he "presented" it at her.
He said it was pointing toward the back of the front seat.
"That is a breach of Police policy and he accepts that, and he will have to deal with that internally... he will have to answer to his bosses for that."
"Don't think that's why he's on trial," Mr Simmonds said.
"You are not here to be caught up in police policy," he told jurors.
Mr Simmonds said Constable Doak in the carpark was “doing what cops are meant to do”.
He described aspects of the allegations as "nonsense" and "rubbish".
"He didn't brandish it [the taser] in a threatening way",” he said.
Police told 1 NEWS there’ll be an internal employment investigation after the trial comes to an end, which is standard procedure.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority is also investigating.
The trial is set down for most of the week.
SHARE ME