Coronial inquests are usually a solemn and grim exercise in hindsight, looking into events leading up to a tragic death. It’s not uncommon for families to wait years for their loss to be investigated by a coroner, which can be traumatising – especially if the loved one had a violent death in custody.
The families of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot dead by police constable Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest in Yuendumu in 2019, have waited three years to hear what they described as “absolutely horrific” revelations in his inquest this week – not about the way their young man died, but about the “disgusting and racist” words and alleged questionable conduct of the officer who shot him.
In the months before the shooting, the inquest heard that text messages were exchanged between Rolfe and other Northern Territory officers, in which Rolfe called Aboriginal people “coons” and other officers called them “niggas” and “grubby fucks”. Officers joked about having “laid into” a woman they thought may have been the victim of a domestic violence incident. It is unclear whether they “laid into her” in a physical or verbal context. Officers joked about turning away body-worn cameras. In one text read to the court, Rolfe said he “liked” that he had “a licence to towel people up”. He called a woman “some white bitch who thinks she’s Aboriginal” and another officer replied that the woman had been “doing a fuckin’ good impression” by “lying in the dirt pissed”. He also texted about smashing up a community.
The messages have raised questions about what the NT police force will do in response.
The NT police commissioner, Jamie Chalker, said on Thursday the messages were not indicative of attitudes held by the force, and a lot of work had been done since 2019 to “try and make ourselves better”.
“I think it’s now starting to give people an insight into the legacy I’ve inherited,” Chalker told the ABC. “And it goes to all the work we’ve been doing to try to overcome some of those things.”
Others are not convinced. Walker’s cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown has called for disciplinary action.
“This can no longer be an argument about ‘a few rotten eggs’ … at some point we need to inspect the chicken creating those eggs … does it have a disease? Yes, racism,” she said.
Warlpiri elders from Yuendumu, who have already made an emotional plea for “no more guns” in their community, said the messages were hurtful.
“You cannot call people these terms, we are human beings and we cannot tolerate racist people and their racist remarks,” Simon Fisher, a Warlpiri elder from Yuendumu, said.
The 13 texts were read to the court by counsel assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer – except one text which she said named Walker and was “too offensive” to read out loud.
The texts were exchanged among officers between April and September in 2019. Walker died in November. Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial in the NT supreme court in Darwin earlier this year. A three-month inquest, which had to wait for the trial to conclude, has just completed week two. There were opening remarks and statements by elders but the matter was paused when lawyers representing Rolfe and the NT Police Association sought to challenge the scope of issues the coroner would investigate.
Rolfe’s team argued that downloading and publishing texts from his mobile phone was unlawful, and the evidence it contained was “too remote”. They argued that an examination by the coroner would “undermine the jury verdict of acquittal”. Lawyers representing the Police Association argued the texts were “open to varying contextual interpretations”. They said the messages, even if racist, could not be said to “raise on the evidence” a line of inquiry regarding Walker’s death.
The coroner thought otherwise. On Tuesday, she issued a ruling in which she expressed frustration that the timing of the objections had caused such “significant disruption” to the early days of the inquest. “In my view, these were objections that could, and should, have been made months ago,” Elisabeth Armitage wrote.
“In my view, the evidence should be received. I consider that the phone was lawfully interrogated. But even if it was not, this would not prohibit me from receiving the evidence.
“If the text messages are evidence of racism by Constable Rolfe, or a culture of racism within the IRT and/or Constable Rolfe’s Patrol Group, and if that racism did play a role – conscious or unconscious – in the immediate acts causing death, the relevant conduct of the IRT while in the community of Yuendumu, or in the decision making of those responsible for deploying the IRT, I am satisfied that this could amount to a ‘relevant circumstance connected with the death’.”
In seeking to have the messages heard in court, counsel assisting the coroner said that it was not to “demonise” or publicly criticise the officers involved but to “understand why those negative attitudes have formed, and to understand what, if any, impact those attitudes might have on police behaviours when they are arresting people.”
On Wednesday, Dwyer went through them in a calm and clear voice, occasionally commenting on their “blatantly racist” content, during cross examination of NT police sergeant Anne Jolley. Jolley, who had nothing to do with the shooting and was not present in town at the time, is a highly respected officer who joined the force in her 40s after a long career as a nurse. Jolley spent several years at Yuendumu, returning to the community in July last year because she “really missed everyone”.
“To be a strong police officer, you need to be fair, honest, transparent, and do the best you can, and treat everyone like you’d like your own family to be treated,” she told the court.
Viewing the texts, Jolley appeared at times lost for words. “Disgusting,” she said. “Wow, that’s disgraceful.” “A horrible, horrible thing to say.” She said they were not attitudes she’d heard expressed in the force, and if she did hear officers speak that way, she’d be “talking to them, or pulling them up on it. It’s not – it’s not acceptable.”
At one point, agitated shouting could be heard outside the courtroom and the coroner prepared to halt the matter but it abated, and Dwyer read on. Thirteen texts in all.
Dr Ian Freckleton KC, representing the Police Association, had earlier described the messages as “repugnant” but said the inquest was not an inquiry into whether sectors of a police force have racist attitudes.
“It is important, your Honour, that a misimpression not be propagated that this modest number of offensive utterances by text messages be imputed to the whole police force. To do so would run the risk of diminishing the respect in which the force is generally held and the trust that is reposed in them,” he said.
Freckleton said “you will not hear any justification or any rationalisation of those from the Northern Territory police force, and we do represent some of those members and you will hear from them what their views are, as to what they have communicated and some of them, at least, will be expressing significant contrition to your Honour, and saying that those kinds of utterances are not reflective of who they are, what their attitudes are or what the attitudes of their supports or their colleagues.”
Lawyers for Rolfe and the NT Police Association also argued that three statements by Rolfe’s ex-fiancee Claudia Campagnaro were not relevant to the inquest either.
Campagnaro made three statutory declarations in 2020 about Rolfe, including an allegation that NT police were required to “cover up” for him on more than one occasion.
Lawyers said Campagnaro’s statements must be read “carefully”, given the relationship formerly existing between them. They said any attitudes she attributed to Rolfe may not have had “any bearing or impact upon what he did or didn’t do on the day”.
But on Monday the coroner ruled that some of Campagnaro’s evidence might be said to “suggest an over-preparedness on the part of Constable Rolfe to draw and/or use a firearm”, while other passages “might suggest a concerning culture” within the Alice Springs police station.
In her ruling, the coroner quoted long sections of Camapgnaro’s evidence, including: “Further to my previous comments about the cops of Alice Springs covering up Zak’s use of force, this was something that Zak had told me. I remember him saying words to the effect of, ‘The Watchies constantly fix up my jobs.’ I’m not sure of the process of how it works but when someone reports you, as in Zak, they would constantly get rid of it for him, being the unjustified use of force reports. I’m not sure how they would do this for him.”
The coroner said there may well be significant issues with Campagnaro’s credibility as a witness, or the interpretation of her evidence, but “interpretations are seemingly open, and the accounts are relevant to the inquiries I am undertaking”.
Armitage noted that Rolfe had not been charged with any offence arising out of these events and that when he gives evidence he can “claim the privilege against self-incrimination”. Rolfe is listed to appear at the inquest later this month.
In the first week of the inquest, Kumanjayi’s cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown told the court about the ongoing suffering of the community since his death. She described waiting outside the police station for hours on the night he died, desperate for news of his condition that did not arrive.
She said hearing the texts in court was “absolutely horrific”.
“It begs the question, why did they feel so comfortable expressing those attitudes? One would assume it is because those attitudes may be accepted, or at least go undisciplined.
“If we continue to attribute racist attitudes to singular taste then no honest and beneficial action can be taken to correct them. I believe systemic racism does exist in the police force, and if that continues to be ignored then there will never be meaningful change, and Indigenous people will continue to feel unsafe and ignored.”
The inquest continues in Alice Springs on Monday.
