- Sensational development on Wednesday morning
- The sergeant admitted that his evidence against Wton was false
- The officer apologized to Wighton in court on Tuesday
Charges have been dropped against rugby league stars Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton, a day after a senior police officer involved in their arrests admitted giving false testimony to the court.
The pair, distant cousins and now teammates at Souths, have spent the past two days in the ACT Magistrates Court over incidents alleged to have occurred during a night out celebrating Mr Wighton’s 30th birthday in Canberra in February.
Mr Wighton was charged with breaching an exclusion order and fighting in a public place, while Mr Mitchell was charged with fighting in a public place, affray and resisting an area officer.
Wighton (left) and Mitchell (right, pictured outside court on Tuesday) are free after police sensationally responded to holes in their arguments exposed in court
Souths star Mitchell (pictured outside court on Wednesday) was charged with fighting in a public place, affray and resisting a territory official
It was initially claimed that Mr Wighton was given an exclusion order after police saw him ‘pushing and shoving’ a man at Fiction nightclub, with ‘clenched fists’ and an ‘angry’ expression on his face, leading police to believe violence could arise. .
But on Tuesday, Sergeant David Power – the supervisor of a group of officers involved in the incident – was shown a series of CCTV footage which Mr Wighton’s lawyer Steve Boland said showed significant gaps in the police’s description of the night.
Sergeant Power then told the court that the allegations he had made about why he had kicked Mr Wighton out of the club no longer appeared accurate.
Sergeant Power admitted: ‘What I saw did not match the images’ and admitted he had a ‘memory problem’.
“What I saw doesn’t seem to have happened, and my memory has failed me,” he said.
The pair (pictured together on the night of the alleged fight) have been official South Sydney teammates since Wednesday
Mr Boland accused Sergeant Power of framing his client by ‘fabricating’ evidence.
‘It wasn’t a lie. I believed it happened,” Sergeant Power said, denying he had misled the court.
The sergeant later apologized to Mr Wighton in court.
“Sorry, Jack, if that happened, buddy. I thought I saw something different,” he told Mr Wighton.
Under further questioning, Mr Boland asked if it was a ‘fact that you provided false evidence’, to which Sergeant Power said it ‘appeared so’.
Once outside the club, as they were walking away, it was claimed Mr Wighton and Mr Mitchell got into a ‘fight’.
The pair’s defense had insisted it was not a fight because “no punches were thrown and no one was on the ground.”
The police sergeant who admitted providing false evidence about why Wighton was kicked out of a nightclub before the pair’s alleged fight apologized to the ex-Canberra star in court
While some officers arrested Mr Wighton, police used elbows, knees and a spray can to get Mr Mitchell to the ground.
They used a baton to pull one of his arms from under his body so police could handcuff him and order him to “stop resisting,” as video footage showed the court.
Mr Mitchell was heard crying in pain. The defense had told the court on Monday that Mr Mitchell had ‘turned into a crying mess, fearing for his life’ during the trial.
Meanwhile, friends of the pair were pleading with police, while a friend who was videotaping the incident heard officers telling them they were engaging in “police brutality.”
In announcing the charges would be dropped, prosecutor Sam Bargwanna said xxxxx