A witness told how she was playing cards in her motorhome parked at a property on Olliviers Rd in the Phillipstown area of Christchruch on April 2 last year when she became aware of a Maori or Samoan man carrying a softball bat, saying, "Whose f***ing car is this?"
The witness said she had parked her car across a thoroughfare near the old Linwood Rugby League clubrooms which was popular with local drug users, youth, and fly-tippers.
Worried that if her male partner went outside to investigate there would be a confrontation, the woman says she went to see what the fuss was about.
She claims the male, alleged to be Luafutu, was standing on the wheel arch of her car, "swearing and yelling" and asking whose car it was.
The woman said he was tapping the bat on the car.
She told him the property owner had given her permission to park there. She had a card with the property owner's name on it and went inside her motorhome to retrieve it.
By then, her partner had phoned police.
When she returned to give him the card, Luafutu was allegedly was sat inside the car with two other males. He was tossing Rashuns into his mouth and getting "angrier and angrier", she said.
Father-of-four Luafutu denies swearing, shouting, wielding the softball bat, or tapping the car with his bat, his defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger said.
Police constables Kurt Harlow and Andrew Hearne were dispatched to the scene.
When they arrived, they asked all three men to get out of the car.
Harlow says he arrested Luafutu almost straight away for possession of an offensive weapon.
When he tried to put handcuffs on him, Harlow claims Luafutu was agitated, aggressive and angry. He allegedly called him a "pussy" and "said he could smash me".
"I approached it with caution, he was a lot bigger than me," Harlow said.
Luafutu said he had a broken wrist and he resisted the handcuffs, Harlow said. The officer failed to get the handcuffs on him and he held his wrists until police back-up arrived.
During a pat down search, Harlow says he found a point bag of methamphetamine in his pocket.
A dog handler arrived and found the bat and also a glass pipe in the back seat of the car.
When Harlow asked Luafutu about the bag of meth, he replied that he had found it and picked it up.
Luafutu's mother Caroline said she was preparing a farewell dinner for her son when he was arrested.
She said his family was returning to Wellington the following day and Luafutu was going into rehab in the Blenheim area.
The softball belonged to her husband and that it was thought of as a family "keepsake".
She said her son had borrowed it walking home one night "to feel safe" and that she'd asked him to return it before he left the city the following day.
Judge Neave said the prosecution hadn't done enough to prove that the softball bat was being used as an offensive weapon. Nor had they proven the P pipe was Luafutu's.
However, he said the rapper had to have known the bag found in his pocket contained drugs of some description.
He remanded Luafutu on bail to reside at a Christchurch address and not to take drugs ahead of sentencing on May 23.
Bulger indicated it was likely Luafutu would apply for a discharge without conviction.
Bulger said a conviction could have potential ramifications for Luafutu's musical career.
