Newly released court documents show prosecutors claimed Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe asked a detective to scratch him in the face to justify his use of force in an arrest almost two years before the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.
A jury last week found Constable Rolfe not guilty of murder and two alternative charges over the death of the 19-year-old Warlpiri man, who was shot three times after he stabbed the officer in the shoulder with scissors on November 9, 2019.
Before the five-week trial began, Justice John Burns ruled that certain material put forward by the prosecution was inadmissible.
The material, known as tendency evidence, included several allegations of excessive use of force by Constable Rolfe, as well as claims that he made false statements to justify his actions.
The material focused on four separate incidents involving Constable Rolfe.
The first related to the officer's arrest of Alice Springs man Malcolm Ryder in 2018.
According to the judge, the prosecution alleged Constable Rolfe punched Mr Ryder in the head, grabbed his hair and slung his head to the ground, rendering him unconscious.
"The Crown alleges that later that day, the accused requested a detective at the Alice Springs Police Station to scratch his face so that he could blame that injury on Ryder in order to justify his use of force," Justice Burns said.
The second incident involved Constable Rolfe's arrest of a 17-year-old Indigenous boy after a chase in the dark in April 2019.
"It is alleged that during the chase, [the boy] stopped running and placed himself on the ground.
"The Crown alleges that the accused then banged [the boy's] head into a rock several times."
The prosecution claimed that Constable Rolfe's statement — that the boy must have cut his head when he dived on the ground to hide from police — was false.
In the third incident, in September 2019, the prosecution claimed Constable Rolfe chased an Indigenous man for 250 metres, before the man slowed down.
"It is alleged that the accused did not slow down and ran full force in [into the man], striking him with outstretched hands, causing [him] to crash with force into a boundary barricade/fence outside a restaurant," the judge said.
Constable Rolfe had stated it was necessary to use the force to prevent a "breach of the peace", but the prosecution said that was false.
In the final incident, the prosecution accused Constable Rolfe of pushing a man at full speed into the wall of a building without any warning, after seeing the man threaten his partner with clenched fists.
The judge noted the officer had not been convicted of any offence.
He also said the prosecution acknowledged that Constable Rolfe did not believe he used excessive force.
The defence argued that the material was not relevant to the shooting in Yuendumu, and that it could unfairly prejudice Constable Rolfe.
Judge said allowing material had 'real danger of diverting the jury'
Justice Burns said the incidents "only weakly support a tendency to use force sufficient to cause serious injury".
But, the judge said, there were significant differences between the four incidents and the shooting for which Constable Rolfe was charged.
"The differences between the circumstances of the tendency incidents and the charged events are such that no inference, such as the Crown would ask the jury to draw, can be drawn," Justice Burns said.
He also said that allowing such material in the trial would be time-consuming and confusing for the jury.
Constable Rolfe's barrister argued 'no public interest' in material's release
During Friday's hearing about the lifting of the suppression orders relating to Constable Rolfe's trial, his barrister unsuccessfully argued that it was not in the public interest to release the material.
"The tendency evidence was misconceived, it was inadmissible, it's unsubstantiated, and there is no public interest, in my submission, in it being put out into the ether," David Edwardson QC said.
However, the judge found that the importance of allowing the public to scrutinise the court's decisions outweighed any potential damage to Constable Rolfe's reputation.
