“You get this opportunity but once, and should there be any further offending the consequences you have clearly avoided today, you won’t next time,” the judge warned.
He also ordered Mendoza to provide a $1000 emotional harm repayment to both victims, which he had offered ahead of sentencing.
Mendoza’s lawyer, Richard Marchant, had argued his client’s conduct occurred at a time when the world had gone “slightly mad” following a lockdown and there was an “epidemic” of ram raids.
Mendoza was fearful as he approached the car, he said, and Marchant noted that a week prior there had been an incident at the same address the Subaru was headed to which resulted in a female officer being punched and a dog injured.
While Mendoza did not initially believe he had done anything wrong, Marchant said after he viewed the footage his client immediately realised he had used excessive force.
The incident also occurred over a short period of time, with only 15 seconds elapsing from when the first victim was grabbed and the second was handcuffed, he said.
Marchant told the court Mendoza should be granted a discharge without conviction for the 2022 assaults, arguing it could result in him losing his job and impact future travel.
“The fall from grace would be significant.”
His client was “truly remorseful” for the harm he caused, had written apologies to the victims and wanted to engage in restorative justice.
As well as this, Marchant said Mendoza had attended anger management counselling, completed a Man Alive course and was continuing with a maintenance course of the programme.
The Crown was neutral on the application for a discharge, accepting the offending was in the low to moderate range and it had been a “short-lived” lapse of judgment.
A police official said at the time of the charges being filed that they resulted from a lengthy investigation into the usage of force while apprehending offenders in a dairy ram raid.
According to the summary of facts, Mendoza had been following a group of youths for nearly half an hour as they drove erratically, attempting to evade capture.
At about 2am, after the successful use of tyre-deflation devices, their joyride ended.
Mendoza and his colleague parked behind the vehicle and ran to the passenger side as the vehicle’s occupants began to exit.
As a 17-year-old exited the car, Mendoza delivered an open-hand strike on his head.
Mendoza and his colleague forcibly took the teen to the ground and Mendoza delivered a second strike to the boy’s neck and head.
He then pulled a 13-year-old boy out of the vehicle and threw him to the ground before another constable took over and the defendant turned his attention to the 14-year-old girl, who was voluntarily lying face-down with her arms behind her back.
“As Mr Mendoza reaches [the girl], Mr Mendoza delivers a significant knee strike to [her] back upper torso,” court documents state. “The impact of this knee strike is enough to cause [her] whole body to move.”
According to the court document he pleaded to, Mendoza delivered two more strikes to her upper shoulder while she “remained prone with her hands behind her back”.
The two officers charged alongside Mendoza are scheduled for judge-alone trials this week.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
