‘He didn’t know we were there’: Army reservist to sue Victoria Police for alleged malicious prosecution

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An army reservist who fled from what he feared to be a carjacking, but was actually an attempted police road stop, is planning to sue Victoria Police after two officers allegedly falsified charges against him.

The police officers involved are now under investigation by the Professional Standards Command after CCTV and other evidence emerged challenging their accounts of the incident near Longwarry on June 28, 2020.

Tony*, who asked for his real name to be withheld, says he’s been shattered by the police case against him.Credit: Eddie Jim

Tony*, who asked for his real name to be withheld to protect his privacy, was travelling along the Princes Highway between Drouin and Longwarry when he said he noticed headlights approaching from behind, about 3.30am.

As he pulled over near a service station, where he intended to buy cigarettes, two senior constables out on patrol in a marked divisional van pulled up alongside his right rear taillight.

Unaware the headlights belonged to a police car, Tony said he locked eyes with a man in a dark-coloured beanie before driving away, fearing the family member’s white 1998 B-Class Mercedes he was driving was about to be carjacked.

Top-right corner: CCTV shows police pulling in alongside the Mercedes at the entrance to the service station.

Court documents show Tony, aged in his 40s, was arrested and charged the following day with risking the safety of an emergency service worker after it was revealed the vehicle that pulled in alongside his was a police car.

In their signed statements and brief of evidence submitted to court in 2020, the two officers alleged that as the driver of the white Mercedes pulled into the service station, they activated their lights and sirens before one of the officers – who was wearing a beanie at the time – jumped from their divisional van.

Armed with a large bottle of capsicum spray, the officers alleged one of them then opened the door of the Mercedes and leant inside in an attempt to remove the driver’s keys. Tony, they alleged, then drove off with the officer’s arm and torso still inside his car.

But serious discrepancies in the officers’ account have emerged based on CCTV footage recovered from the service station.

“I just didn’t get the door quite open,” one officer is heard saying on CCTV captured inside the service station after the incident. “He didn’t know we were there.”

“Nah, he knew we were there,” the other officer replied. “I thought he was going to f—ing stay.”

In his police interview, conducted by the two officers involved in the incident, Tony maintained he was unaware the vehicle approaching him from behind was a police car and did not see red and blue police lights flashing. He also denied hearing any verbal commands to pull over or that the door of his Mercedes was opened.

When he pulled into the service station, he told investigators he feared he was about to be carjacked and fled, crashing into a ditch after hitting black ice at a nearby roundabout. He said he walked and then hitchhiked home to get help to recover his vehicle, but when he returned the vehicle was gone.

The following day, Tony called the local police station in an attempt to track down the Mercedes. Hours later he was arrested and charged.

As a result, the reservist temporarily lost his military salary and was stripped of his medals.

“It was cold, icy, quite foggy,” he told police in his recorded interview. “I’ve freaked out. My first instinct was to remove myself from that situation.”

Despite Tony’s denials and the contradictory CCTV, court documents show police attempted to prosecute the matter, with the officers signing statements that stated one “feared” for his life during the brief encounter.

While the more serious charges laid were later dropped in court, including allegations Tony recklessly placed the safety of an emergency service worker at risk with his driving, the military employee pleaded guilty to careless driving and hitchhiking and was fined $500 without conviction.

He is now preparing to sue Victoria Police for malicious prosecution and misfeasance, alleging that the officers were aware CCTV footage contradicted their statements and that they made false claims about how the interaction unfolded to bolster their case.

Tony, an army reservist for 20 years, said he’d always respected law enforcement and was working alongside police on a 24-hour roster as part of the state’s COVID-19 response when his arrest occurred.

“In the army we were doing worst-case scenarios stuff, getting prepared to hire shipping containers in case there was an overflow of bodies in the morgue … like we’d seen on the news in New York City. Everyone was hyper-vigilant at the point, society was starting to break down, the world was chaotic,” he told The Age.

“The last thing that I saw that night was a set of eyes that had a thousand-yard stare, like a drunk, angry person at a pub. He was wearing a dark beanie, dark clothing, and he lent forward into the foot well of his own car to grab something,” the man recalled.

“I honestly had no idea it was a police car pulling behind me. I thought I was being carjacked.”

Robinson Gill Lawyers principal solicitor Jeremy King, who is set to file the legal action against Victoria Police, said without the CCTV his client’s innocence may have never come to light.

Neither officer activated their body-worn cameras for unknown reasons, and no footage was available from inside the police car from the time of the incident.

“There is this element of luck for people like this man. Luck that the servo kept the CCTV, that they had CCTV with audio. Without that bit of luck, he may well be sitting in a jail cell,” King said.

“This sort of behaviour by police is what erodes people’s confidence in the criminal justice system.”

Victoria Police were contacted for comment.

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