Singing plaintiff loses court fight over police shooting It was a legal drama, involving a silver cocktail fork, a police shooting, and the Russian embassy, which soon turned courtroom musical. Civil proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court took a turn for the bizarre late last week, when Justice Lucy McCallum had to dismiss the case because the plaintiff would not stop ranting, and at one point, singing in court. Sonni Michel Angelo N'Ge-Sala, who was suing the state of NSW over a police shooting, had to be reprimanded several times for his strange behaviour, including singing over the top of a recording played in court. "While the recording was being played, Mr N'Ge-Sala began singing in what sounded like an African language," Justice McCallum wrote in her judgment, explaining why she dismissed the case. I asked him to be quiet so that I could hear the evidence. The singing continued. It should be acknowledged that the singing was quite beautiful but it was preventing me from hearing the evidence. Mr N'Ge-Sala was suing over a police shooting in December 2008. He said he had been making a call in a phone booth in Sydney when a woman stabbed him behind the ear. He said he followed the woman, who appeared to be holding a knife, and called triple-0. The woman, who was actually carrying a silver cocktail fork with three long prongs, said she thought Mr N'Ge-Sala was going to attack her. When police arrived, they used capsicum spray on the pair as they fought on the staircase of a unit block. According to evidence before the court, police said the woman rushed at them holding the fork. Believing the woman had a knife and an officer was in "mortal" danger, police fired two shots, which hit her, the court heard. The woman failed in a lawsuit against the state of NSW, but Mr N'Ge-Sala pursued his claims, arguing police were firing at him and had "persecuted" him in the years since the shooting. At one point during the case, Mr N'Ge-Sala, who was representing himself, told the judge "I won't sit down any more, woman," and said "the Russian embassy, they are aware." Mr N'Ge-Sala also threatened to hit a sheriff's officer, and claimed one of the barristers acting for the state of NSW was using a fake name. Justice McCallum said it was within her power to dismiss the case, as Mr N'Ge-Sala was failing to conduct the hearing "in an appropriate and rational way."