Ohakune District Court

Ruapehu Bulletin, 21 December 1993, Page 16

Ohakune District Court

The following cases were heard by Judge Lynton Laing of Palmerston North 'in the Ohakune District Court on Thursday 9 December. Police sergeant Bob Evans and Constable Greg Phillips, both of Ohakune appeared for the prosecution.

Ordered not to drive

Richard Craig Taura, 20, unemployed of Raetihi, was remanded to appear again on 20 January 1994 on a charge of stealing a 1974 Ford Falcon valued at $2500 the property of Lillian Hancock, on 20 November

as well as a charge of driving while disqualified on Pukekaha Road on 2 December. When given bail he was ordered not to drive during the remand period.

Possession of firearm

Tex Te Whenua Tuirirangi, 42, sickness beneficiary of Pipiriki, was remanded to 20 January to answer charges of possessing a .22 calibre rifle on 3 December except for some lawful, proper and sufficient purpose, as well as a charge of having received this firearm, the property of John

William Ratima, from persons unknown between 18 August 1992 and 3 December 1993. Counsel: Gary Johnson.

Cultivating cannabis

Alexander Wayne Sturgess, 22, saies representative of Raetihi, was remanded without plea on a charge of cultivating cannabis on 22 November to appear again in the Ohakune District Court on 20 January.

Careless use

Pieter David Vlaardingerbroek, 31, formerly of Wanganui, ap-

peared for sentence on a charge of careless use of a motor vehicle on SH4 at Kakatahi on 17 July. Court heard how defendant had travelled up from Wanganui to Ohakune in search of work with local contractor Koi Young on 16 July. However, having booked into the Ohakune Hotel he realised that he would not be able to start work the next day as arranged with his employer because he had left his specialist tools at home in Wanganui. He decided to retire to hisroomtohave afew hours sleep before getting up early and travelling back to Wanganui to collect his

tools before returning to start work at Koi Youngs. Unfortunately his intoxicated room mate woke him with a fire extinguisher when he returned from the bar so defendant decided to leave for Wanganui there and then, without adequate sleep, because he realised that he would be unable to get to sleep again that night. He fell asleep at the wheel as he was travelling down the Paraparas and the car went over a 1 00 metre bluff rolling several times after breaking through a fence. Court heard how defendant had already paid dearly for this dangerous driving charge: he had written off a vehicle, had been admitted

to hospital and had lost two months employment. No fine or period of disqualification was imposed but defendant was asked to pay $ 1 00 toward the cost of prosecution and ordered to take a defensive driving course. Counsel: Gary Johnson.

Fined $1600

Brent Anthony Petherick, 24, cafe manager of Ohakune, appeared for sentence on a charge of dangerous driving to which he had earlier pleaded guilty as well as to defend a charge of driving with excess breath alcohol to which he had pleaded not guilty at last month's sitting. Both charges arose out of a single incident on the Ohakune Mountain Road at about 11pm on Saturday 4 September. Petherick said that after drinking with friends at the Junction he had decided, uncharacteristically, to drive to the Turoa Skifield to check out snow conditions for the following day and it was while he was returning to the Junction that he crashed into a rock at the bottom of the Mountain Road. He had then been confronted by occupants of another car one of whom had taken his ignition keys while police were summoned. Constable Greg Phillips of Ohakune said that he had been driving a marked police patrol vehicle in the Junction area that night and while conducting a check on hotels and bars had been informed of the accident by some pedestrians as he returned to his vehicle. At the scene of the accident he spoke with defendant, whom he knew, and ascertained that Petherick had been the driver and had been drinking. Constable Phillips said defendant had accompanied him to the Ohakune police station when asked to do so. There an evidential breath test was carried out at approximately 1 1 .40pm. Defence counsel Gary Johnson argued that the police officer had exercised powers that he did not in fact possess in so far as defendant had not been arrested or charged when asked to accompany the officer to the police station. "My client could have left the scene of the accident and was free to refuse to accompany the officer when invited to do so but only agreed because, as a first offender, he thought he was under arrest, though I not formally and, because j he knew he had been inI volved in an accident, I thought that by leaving, he would only aggravate the situation. The officer hadn' t I ascertained that my client J was either drunk or had used j the vehicle carelessly before he was asked to ac- | company the officer back to the police station." Judge Laing did not acI cept the argument that the ( police officer had exercised j powers he did not possess

and fined defendant $800, court costs $95 on each charge and disqualified him for 12 months.

Case dismissed

Miss Tossy Ryan of Raumati Beach did not appear personally to defend a charge of careless use of a motor vehicle on SH1 (the Desert Road) on the night of 27 January but she was represented by defence counsel Steve Gill of Lower Hutt. Court heard first from witness Martin John Spence who said that he had been driving a log-carrying truck and trailer unit on the Desert Road that night when, as he approached the brow of a hill, he saw the headlights of a vehicle approaching fast in his rear-view mirror. As the vehicle was about to overtake his truck and trailer unit, he saw the headlights of other vehicles approaching from the opposite direction ahead of him but the first vehicle continued to overtake and was then seen to slide across to the right hand side of the road and overturn. He stopped and on arriving at the upturned car found a male passenger walking around in a dazed fashion while the driver appeared to be trapped by her seatbelt upside down and still behind the steering wheel. When he spoke to the driver she said that she had to overtake because of the pieces of bark that were constantly coming off his load of logs. Using his radio he called the police. The second witness was William Anthony Payne, a writer of Auckland, who said he had been a passenger in Ms Ryan's car but could remember nothing of the accident either before or after because he was "blind drunk" when they left the Kapiti Coast. He had known Tossy Ryan for about 1 5 years and had been celebrating his departure for Auckland. Nor could be remember being interviewed about the accident by police constable Chris Scales of Waiouru at the scene or subsequently by Auckland police some months later. At this stage prosecuting sergeant Evans asked if Payne could be declared a hostile witness but Judge Laing decided to hear evidence from police constable Chris Scales first. Constable Scales said that he had been called out on 27 January to attend a motor vehicle accident on the Desert Road about 35kms north of Waiouru. There he found a station wagon on its roof in a culvert on the side of the road. He attempted to speak with the previous witness William Anthony Payne without success and then tried to ascertain what had happened from other witnesses at the scene. He was told by the first witness, Martin John Spence, that Ms Tossy Ryan who had been freed from the vehicle, had been the driver of the station wagon but had Turn to Page 13

District Court

From Page 12 already, left the scene and could not be found. At thi s poi nt, J udge Lai ng who noted that Ms Ryan was not in Court to be formallyidentified,terminated further testimony and began his summing up. He said that from the truck dri ver's testimony this had been an appalling piece of driving which could have resulted in someone being killed. The dri ver of the station wagon had continued to overtake in the dark despite on-coming traffic which the truck dri ver could see ahead. However police were relying on identifying the woman driver from the truck driver because the passenger (Pay ne), who has been a friend of the alleged defendant for 15 years, claimed that he did not know anything about the accident. The police were also relying on evidence as to what had happened from third parties. The case was dismissed.

All remanded

Four defendants involved in a series of burglaries (see Bulletin 23/11) were again remanded when they appeared last Thursday. All four: Chris Lea Billington, 17,unemployed of Raetihi; James Kitinoa Cleary, 17, student of Ohakune; Steven Michael Sattler, 18, pruner of Raetihi; Scott Nicholas Wise, 18, unemployed of Kariori, had been remanded when they first appeared last month (19 November). The further remand of all four to 20 January was to enable the probation service to establish their ability to make reparation for the damage done and the items stolen. Each was given bail and ordered to re-appear next month for a probation officer's report and sentence as well as a reparation report. Counsel for all four defendants was Mr Paul Brown.