"You tried to have this man, Mr Wighton, and his mate, Mr Mitchell, convicted of criminal offences when you knew there was poison at the root of this case," barrister Steven Boland accused.

The supervising police officer gave key evidence in Wighton and Mitchell's ACT Magistrates Court hearing after the pair allegedly fought in public earlier this year, a charge they both deny.

Mitchell has also denied affray and resisting a public official charges, while Wighton pleaded guilty to failing to comply with an exclusion notice.

The officer had previously told the court he saw Wighton with "clenched fists", looking angry, holding another man and "doing antisocial things", at Civic's Fiction nightclub.

"Sorry Jack, if that's what happened, mate. I thought I saw something different," the sergeant directly said to Wighton in court.

This testimony was given to justify why the former Canberra Raider was asked to leave the club on his 30^th birthday and then given an exclusion direction from the city area, kicking off further alleged offending .

"What I saw appears to have not happened. It appears my memory has failed me," Sergeant Power said on Tuesday after nightclub and police footage of the incident was played from multiple angles, contradicting his evidence.

Mr Boland, representing Wighton, accused the police officer of deliberately giving "wildly inaccurate evidence" and said he had "grossly mischaracterised" what the NRL player had done.

"This total and utter fantasy that you dreamt up to justify everything that happened from the moment you kicked this man, and functionally the rest of the 30^th birthday, out of the club," Mr Boland said.

"Are we looking at perjury here? Are you deliberately lying under oath?

"You've invented a whole scenario that didn't happen."

Sergeant Power defended himself during the heated exchange, telling the court he only recounted what he thought he saw happened.

"It wasn't intentional. I would never mislead the court. I apologise," he said.

"I don't know what to say. I don't lie."

The police officer said he was still confident he saw Wighton acting aggressively in the club.

Mr Boland argued his client being kicked out of the nightclub was "completely unlawful" and said officers had frog-marched the man outside, as seen on video, like a "common criminal".

The barrister said Sergeant Power ignored the "independent eye-witness account" of a Fiction security guard, who was asked why he hadn't kicked out Wighton and another man.

"No, no, no, I think they're friends. They know each other," the security guard is heard saying on police body-worn camera footage.

Sergeant Power was not let off the hook after lunch, when Mr Boland questioned him on the meeting he and eight other involved officers had after the arrests of Wighton and Mitchell.

The court heard this "round table", called by Sergeant Power, was intended to help put together a police statement of facts.

Mr Boland put to the officer that placing nine civilian witnesses in the same room and asking them to all contribute to one story would be "unthinkable".

The officer agreed that was a bad idea but said he wanted to get the information right after he "came to the opinion there would be lots of media interest around [the case]".

"It's definitely not the best way to do things," Sergeant Power said.

The barrister also said it was highly unusual to take so many police officers off the street all at once during a "peak hour" for antisocial behaviour.

"You deliberately treated [Wighton and Mitchell] differently because of the profile of the men who had been arrested and the media interest you thought would follow," Mr Boland said.

"You've damaged the community's interest as well in what you did."

The court has heard from Mr Boland and Jack Pappas, barrister for Mitchell, that the NRL players' ensuing arrests were unlawful.

Further footage of Mitchell's arrest, soon after he and Wighton allegedly fought on Bunda Street, was played for the court on Tuesday,

Videos showed Mitchell in visible distress, with at least three police officers pinning him down, face-first, on the road.

Several people, including Canberra Raiders veteran Elliot Whitehead, are recorded on body-worn camera protesting with police officers during the arrest.

"They're out of order," Mr Whitehead is heard saying.

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A woman, off camera, is also heard saying: "Why is he on the ground, can someone please explain that?"

"That's f---ing police brutality ... that's f---ing racist," a female voice was recorded saying.

The court had previously heard Mitchell was "screaming in pain" and "reduced to a weakened mess, worrying he might die" during the arrest.

Wighton was arrested soon after it is said he ignored further police requests to leave the area.

The hearing continues and, with several witnesses remaining, is set to run for longer than the initial three-day estimate.

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