A man who died in custody at the Hāwera Police Station in 2019 would have survived if he had got medical attention sooner, the High Court at New Plymouth has been told today.
Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke Photo: Pool / Stuff / Simon O'Connor/
Allen Ball died in the early hours of 1 June, 2019.
Three police officers, who all have name suppression, have pleaded not guilty to Ball's manslaughter.
The 55-year-old was arrested late on 31 May after a family harm incident at a residential address in the South Taranaki town.
Ball was intoxicated and lost consciousness in the police vehicle on the way to the Hāwera station and six people were required to carry him to a holding cell just before midnight.
He was discovered unresponsive some two hours later and declared dead just before 3am.
In her opening, Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke said the police officers who handled the arrest failed in their duty of care of Ball to such an extent they contributed to his death.
She said the officers knew that he had threatened to commit suicide, was heavily intoxicated, did not react to pain response testing and could not be woken in the car or once placed in the recovery position in the holding cell.
Clarke said medical assistance should have been sought as soon as police arrived at the station.
Two of the officers had "blatantly ignored" alerts that came up on the police computer prompted by entries about Ball's condition that recommended seeking medical help for him.
Clarke said at no time after Ball arrived at the police station - at 11.46pm on 31 May until 1 June at 2.26am when one of the accused said: "get the ambo" - was any medical assistance sought.
"At that point of time, it was already too late, the Crown says, Mr Ball at 2.36am had stopped breathing."
Clarke said subsequent attempts at CPR were fruitless and he was pronounced dead on the floor of cell one at 2.53am.
She told the court if Ball had got medical help he would have lived.
"The Crown says Mr Ball died on the floor of the Hāwera Police Station of alcohol, tramadol and codeine toxicity. The Crown says if Mr Ball had been provided with medical care at any time between 11.46pm when he arrived at the Hāwera Police Station and sometime before 2am that morning, he would have survived what was in essence a drug and alcohol overdose."
Clarke said as a result the three defendants failed in their duty of care to Ball, "to such a serious extent that each are guilty of contributing to his death."
Susan Hughes QC, representing the most senior of the three defendants, opened the defence case.
She told the jury they had to decide if her client breached their duty of care for Ball and if so was that a major departure from the standard of care expected, and whether the behaviour was justifably considered criminal.
Hughes told the jury members they already knew how Ball died.
"Suicide. He deliberately and covertly ingested a very large quantity of (painkillers) codeine and tramadol and denied it. You know where he died, Hāwera Police Station. You know when he died."
She asked the jury to focus on the question of why her client did not get Ball medical help. She said her client and their colleagues thought Ball was "drunk and sleeping off a bender".
She said that was a view that was "honestly held".
"But I say to you they were wrong. They wrongly believed he was asleep. But that mistake does not amount to a breach of their duty of care to Mr Ball and does not amount to a major departure of the duty owed to him and doesn't merit criminal sanction."
Hughes said making a mistake in these circumstances was not criminal.
"We expect a great deal from police officers. We expect to answer the call of duty, to the best at all times. We do not expect them to be faultless."
Defence lawyer Andrew Laurenson wanted to know why his client was one of the accused and not simply a witness like any number of the other police on duty that night.
"I would suggest you need to look at whether there is anything that the Crown can put their finger on to establish there is a duty. Can they nail their flag to a pole? No."
Kylie Pascoe said her client, like many others that night, made mistakes.
"There was human error. The defence does not shy away from that. Mr Ball was not an intoxicated man snoring it off in the cells as he had been assessed, but as it was later determined he had self-poisoned."
Pascoe said her client got it wrong, but she told the jury that was not enough to convict them.
"In this case, the Crown must prove gross negligence - not mere negligence, but gross negligence - and that is a very high standard."
