Auckland prison death: Family’s fight for answers as body camera footage emerges of pepper spray incident

The acquittal of a prison officer who pepper sprayed an Auckland man 20 minutes before his death has left his family still fighting for answers. As CCTV footage of the officer confronting the distressed inmate at Mt Eden prison emerges, Caleb Moefaauo’s family tells Herald reporter George Block why they want an inquest into his death.

Caleb Moefaauo should never have been in Mt Eden prison, his family say.

The 26-year-old was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as a teenager.

When he was on his medication he was a normal, happy young man. When he was not, things were very difficult, said a family spokesman.

“That journey, to the time he ended up in Mt Eden, was a tortuous one like a rollercoaster ride,” he said.

There were battles to find the right medication and to secure mental health treatment.

Moefaauo would go into crisis, police would be called and he would find himself in the justice system rather than receiving the treatment he required.

A few months before his death, he went before a judge who was given a letter from Tiaho Mai - the Counties Manukau mental health inpatient unit.

The letter said Moefaauo needed to be in the Mason Clinic, a secure forensic mental health facility in Pt Chevalier. But there was no room at the clinic.

Moefaauo was taken to Mt Eden Corrections Facility. The country’s busiest prison, it is home to nearly 1000 mostly remand inmates and has been bedevilled in recent years by staff shortages and violent incidents.

After spending some time in Mt Eden, he was taken to the Intervention and Support Unit (ISU), a section of the prison for inmates with mental health issues.

The ISU is meant to keep vulnerable and distressed prisoners safe.

“The family was hugely stressed that he’d been sent to Mt Eden and had been trying all avenues to understand why the hell he was sent there, and to get him out of there,” the spokesman said.

“He was due to come out … he had a very happy call in the days before with his dad. It was going to be his dad’s birthday.”

Caleb Moefaauo, who died in custody in Mt Eden Prison in Auckland on April 5, 2022. His family are speaking out for the first time after the release of CCTV footage showing the moment he was pepper sprayed 20 minutes before his death. Photos / Supplied

On the morning of April 5, 2022, Moefaauo had just finished a shower in the ISU and was drying himself.

He went to pick up another towel to dry his face and hair and was asked to hand one of the towels back.

Prisoners in the ISU are not allowed to take towels back to their cells due to the risk they could use them to harm themselves.

An officer working in the unit, who would go on to stand trial charged with assaulting Moefaauo before he died, approaches him and asks him to relinquish the towel.

As other staff attempt to de-escalate the situation using an even tone of voice, the officer advances on him and begins repeatedly yelling “Drop on your knees” in an aggressive tone captured on his body camera, which also recorded sound.

He then yells “Drop on your knees otherwise I’ll spray” and “Get on your knees, otherwise I’ll spray you”.

Moefaauo does not drop the towel or go to his knees, but at no point makes a move towards the officers and does not appear to be doing anything to indicate he will harm himself, the footage shows.

He replies in a quiet tone: “I can’t do that, brother.”

The officer, now appearing to speak almost at the top of his lungs, says: “Down now, get on your knees!”

He then pepper sprays Moefaauo, who says: “Why did you do this to me?” and later: “I can’t see, brother, please.”

About 20 minutes later, Moefaauo became unresponsive while he was being restrained by other officers and could not be revived. He died at the scene.

A post-mortem report records his cause of death as “prone restraint cardiac arrest associated with cardiomegaly” - an enlarged heart.

Police launched a criminal investigation into the death and charged the officer who pepper sprayed Moefaauo with assault with a weapon. He pleaded not guilty and went to trial in January.

The jury at his trial was not told Moefaauo had died 20 minutes after he was pepper sprayed due to concerns that fact would be too prejudicial, because the charge did not relate to the death.

No one else was charged in relation to the incident.

During the trial, the jury watched body camera and CCTV footage.

Crown prosecutor Kristy Li told the jury the trial came down to one question: Was the officer legally justified when he pepper sprayed the prisoner because he was acting in self-defence?

Li said he was not justified.

He made no attempt to de-escalate the situation after confronting the prisoner over his refusal to hand over a towel, she said.

Moefaauo was born in Australia and spent his early years in Christchurch before moving to Auckland. Photo / Supplied

The prisoner displayed no signs of aggression and was backing away as the officer advanced on him, yelling at him to drop to his knees, the prosecutor said.

“He simply was not acting in self-defence when he deployed pepper spray,” Li said.

The officer’s lawyer, Petrina Stokes, said he was justified in deploying the pepper spray and was only acting in accordance with his training amid difficult circumstances.

The officer gave evidence in his own defence, saying he had become a Corrections officer in 2020 after nearly two decades in an unrelated job because he was seeking a new challenge.

“I was very proud because it’s the first time I’ve ever graduated from anything,” he said.

The officer said he feared the towel could have been used as a weapon against himself or his fellow officers.

Under cross examination from Li, he admitted the prisoner had done nothing to suggest he was going to use the towel to harm himself.

After a few hours of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

Judge Nevin Dawson granted the man’s request for permanent name suppression but allowed an application by media for the footage shown to the jury.

The application for the footage was supported by Moefaauo’s family. The spokesman said they are speaking out because they want a full coronial inquest into the death.

No decision has been made on whether there will be a public coronial inquest hearing, where witnesses can be called in open court and questioned, as opposed to an “on the papers” decision where a coroner issues written findings after making inquiries.

Moefaauo’s family wants to know why he was in prison rather than a mental health facility, and if he had to be in prison, why he wasn’t in the ISU from the start of his time in custody.

They are also firm in their view there is a link between the pepper spray and Moefaauo’s death.

Members of Moefaauo's family sat through every day of his trial in January and watched the confronting CCTV footage. Photo / Supplied

The family has done their research and found several cases overseas where people in custody have died after they were pepper sprayed.

A Los Angeles Times investigation in 1995 found 61 fatalities following police use of pepper spray since 1990.

An American study funded by the National Institute of Justice into the deaths of 63 suspects who were pepper sprayed found the spray contributed to two of the deaths, both in people with asthma. Other deaths in the study were found to be due to intoxication, disease or positional asphyxiation.

In 2022, two people died in Australia in the space of a week after they were pepper sprayed during their arrests.

The family spokesman said they wanted more of an explanation as to why cardiomegaly - the enlarged heart - was listed as a cause of death and whether it could have made him more susceptible to pepper spray and positional asphyxiation.

They also want the inquest to review the series of decisions leading up to Moefaauo’s death, including the hiring practices and training of Corrections officers, and the choices made about Moefaauo’s care.

“There was a string of terrible decisions made over the course of a very long time,” the spokesman said.

“You watch enough rugby, you know that one of their favourite sayings at the moment is: Don’t put yourself in a position where the referee holds all the cards.”

In his view, the officer who was acquitted held all the cards, and did not make the right call.

“Some people should not be prison officers.”

Corrections and the Department’s Independent Office of the Inspectorate both carried out reviews following Moefaauo’s death. Because their findings are likely to form part of the evidence put before the coroner, Corrections declined to release the findings ahead of any inquest.

“Coronial inquests provide detailed, expert and impartial views of the circumstances surrounding a person’s death,” said Sean Mason, the Corrections Northern Regional Commissioner.

“If there are agreed findings and recommendations in relation to any aspect of our policy, process, practice or training as a result, then we will absolutely act on these.”

George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.