Indigenous man awarded $220,000 over 'discriminatory' Palm Island riot treatment
The once-jailed indigenous man who rioted on Palm Island over the death of a local man in custody has been awarded $220,000 in damages in the Federal Court.
Lex Wotton had launched a class action suit on behalf of Palm Islanders after the death of Cameron (Mulrunji) Doomadgee in November 2004.
In court on Monday Justice Debbie Mortimer delivered a damning judgement against Queensland Police and awarded Mr Wotton and his family the compensation over the treatment he received from officers, including being tasered in front of his children.
The island erupted in the week following Mulrunji’s death, with the police station, court house and police residence burned down.
A preliminary autopsy report found the local man's death was an accident, despite him having four broken ribs and his liver almost cleaved in two.
"Things gunna burn," a shirtless Mr Wotton said in a 2004 video, before later being filmed with a large plumber's wrench, which he used to smash the station windows.
The police station, barracks and home occupied by Mulrunji’s arresting officer, Sen Sgt Chris Hurley, were razed during the riot.
In response, heavily armed masked police conducted raids and arrests in front of unarmed men, women and children from a total 18 families.
In his class action, Mr Wotton claimed police were racially motivated and over reacted.
Justice Mortimer found the officers with command and control of the death investigation did not act "impartially or independently”.
"I have found that police acted in these ways because they were dealing with an Aboriginal community," she said.
She said she was satisfied SERT officers would not have "forced their way into houses occupied by unarmed families ... pointing assault rifles at them and yelling at them to lie down" in a community that wasn't isolated and predominantly Aboriginal.
Justice Mortimer awarded $95,000 damages to Mr Wotton, $115,000 to his wife Cecilia, and $10,00 to his mother Agnes, while claims by other locals will be dealt with at a later date.
A jury later acquitted Senior Sergeant Hurley of Mulrunji's manslaughter in 2007. He was convicted of assaulting a man he grabbed by the throat and pointed a Taser at during a roadside arrest on the Gold Coast in 2013 last Friday.
The Queensland Police Union has rejected the court’s findings outright.
"Whether this situation happened in an indigenous community or in downtown Brisbane CBD such as the Queen Street Mall, police would behave exactly the same way and have done so in the past," President Ian Leavers said.
"I personally know many police who served and continue to serve on both Palm Island at that time and in Indigenous communities and I know they are not racist."
On Monday, Justice Mortimer said she found some, but not all, of the claims in the class action brought by Mr Wotton, to be unlawful discrimination.
She also directed the Commissioner of Police to consider whether an apology is appropriate, but did not order one.
