A Sydney man who was accused of being drunk and was thrown out of a Parramatta pub by security and arrested after allegedly only throwing back one beer has been handed a cool twenty thou by a judge who agreed that his arrest was unlawful.
Not a bad payday for a pint.
According to Johnny Raad‘s complaint, he had just bought his second VB at the Albion Hotel when a security guard approached him and said he was intoxicated and needed to leave the venue. Raad says he had actually asked the same security guard a question only minutes earlier.
After an argument, a second security guard allegedly approached Raad in a “menacing fashion” and likely pushed him. Raad approached police who were at the venue and complained that he had been assaulted by security. The police promptly reprimanded him for not leaving the venue when instructed, and put him in handcuffs in the back of a paddywagon when it apparently looked like he was walking back towards the venue.
He spent two hours at Parramatta Police Station before being released.
Judge Matthew Dicker wasn’t totally sold on the notion that Raad had only had one beer – given that he’d been at the pub for three hours – but couldn’t really establish the facts either way. Though he agreed Raad wasn’t drunk, he said the security guard’s belief that he was intoxicated was a reasonable assumption.
But that didn’t matter in the end. Because the police did not intend to charge Raad, the Judge Dicker found they were not lawfully justified when they arrested him. “A person cannot be arrested merely to prevent the continuation of [an] offence if the police do not intend to charge the arrested person with the offence,” he said.
He also noted the fact that multiple officers were involved in the arrest, even though Raad did not resist.
He handed Raad $20,000 on the grounds of false imprisonment. “The freedom of a member of the public is important and arrests must take place for valid and lawful reasons,” Dicker said.
There ya go, team. As always, know your rights.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: The Simpsons.
