Lawyer may take action over arrest

Lawyer may take action over arrest

A lawyer is considering legal action after suffering broken ribs when he was pushed to the ground by police conducting a sniffer dog search in a pub.

As reported in the City News last week, the courts have thrown out the police case against Newtown solicitor Kristian Bolwell, 37, who was arrested when he offered his card to a person police were searching for drugs in the Coopers Arms Hotel in Newtown. Bolwell, who suffered two broken ribs during the arrest, was charged with resisting police and hindering police.

But the NSW Local Court threw out the charges and awarded costs in Bolwell’s favour, unusual in criminal cases even when defendants are found innocent. The court may award costs if the judge considers proceedings should never have been instituted, as the judge did in this case.

CCTV footage contradicted the police case against Bolwell, a Fire Brigades Union employee, showing he had been calm and reasonable during the incident. And no drugs were found on the person being searched, despite the attentions of the sniffer dogs.

Bolwell’s lawyer, Peter O’Brien, said he had advised his client to consider a civil action.

“This case highlighted the use of coercive police powers against ordinary people going about their daily lives in public places,” O’Brien said.

“Police powers have significantly expanded in recent years to allow what would in years gone by have constituted basic abuses of civil liberties and individual privacy.

“This case highlights that where people are offered assistance by lawyers, or where police authority is verbally challenged, police seem to think it’s ok to respond in an unlawful physical and brutal manner.

“It also demonstrates the increasing concerns in our community with the use of sniffer dogs in searches and the very utility of that in the war against drugs.”

O’Brien said it was essential for legislators to balance the right of people to go about their lives with the right of police to enforce the law, but that the balance now seemed skewed in favour of police.

Bolwell said he was still considering his legal options.

“These police in their baseball caps and menacing stares, blocking all the entrances and exits of the hotel and going through patrons’ belongings, is an inherent infringement of civil liberties and like many people, I don’t like it,” he said when asked why he had intervened.

“When a man can’t even have a bloody beer in peace, it shows Australia has gone backwards when it comes to civil liberties.”

Bolwell said a more robust process was needed in granting police applications for the use of sniffer dogs, one that included input from the community.

– BY PAM WALKER

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