Theft charge dismissed

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 643, 2 July 1996, Page 12

Theft charge dismissed

George Lee Hemara, 27, unemployed of Kaikohe, appeared to defend a charge of theft after a charge of burglary was vacated by consent. The judge dismissed the charge after police conceded that another person may have committed the theft in question. Prosecution witness Luke Albert said when he arri ved at his truck parked in the T angi wai Sawmill yard, on Saturday 16 December last year, he noted a broken lock and a number of power and hand tools missing. These included routerS, drills, planers, sanders, chisels, screwdrivers, electrical leads and adaptors to a total value of $3490. None of this property has been recovered. Prosecution witness Lyn Brown who is employed as a shift supervisor at the Tangiwai Sawmill, said as he was about to finish his shift just before midnight on Friday 15 December he saw two figures, one of whom was carrying something resembling a pair of bolt-cutters and trying to dodge away into the darkness. The other was George Lee Hemara who he was able to identify positively because they had been to school together and both had worked at the mill. He said Hemara had asked him as they walked towards the office together if another shift was due to come on at midnight but was told that only he and two others would be staying on at the yard until next morning. Prosecution witness Richard Ormond, a leading operator at the mill, said he had been making the rounds and switching off lights just before midnight when he saw someone running across the railway track at the back of the yard. Police constable Graeme Rumble said he examined the Tangiwai Mill site and noted that, while it was fenced on three sides, there was no fence at the back of the site where the yard bordered the railway track. He said the yard was "extremely well lit" at night enabling him to identify persons up to 100 metres away. The defendant, George Lee Hemara, took the witness stand and said he had travelled to Palmerston North on Thursday 14 December with his partner and son, stopping briefly in Ohakune to change vehicles. From Ohakune he had travelled as a back seat passenger in his mother's car while his father occupied the front passenger seat. He denied that he had left Palmerston North at any time between 1 4 December and 1 9 December when he returned to Kaikohe. Alice Tuhuwai, the defendant' s partner, said she had travelled from Kaikohe with her two sons and defendant in

one car and then, when they reached Ohakune, had completed the journey to Palmerston North in a car driven by Hemara' s mother. Under cross-examination she was asked to name the occupants who had travelled with her from Ohakune to Palmerston North and to tell the Court what route they had taken. She was unable to say whether they had travelled via Wanganui or Waiouru and said the front passenger seat was empty during the journey. She said she would have known if her partner had left Palmerston North at any time between arriving on 14 December and leaving on 19 December. During her testimony defence counsel Eric Forster produced a handwritten note from the Central Orthotics Clinic in Palmerston North stating that she and 'George Hemara' had attended the clinic on 14 and 19 December. Under cross-examination she acknowledged that her son who attended the clinic was named 'George'. Asked why the note she produced was dated 1 8 June she said she needed it to claim expenses for the clinic visit from the Department of Social Welfare. She denied she had obtained it just nine days before last week's trial because she claimed to have no knowledge of the hearing. The defendant' s mother, Irene Hemara, said she had come to Ohakune from Palmerston North to collect her son and partner together with the two children. On returning to Palmerston North they had first gone to her home and then, "about an hour later" to the clinic. Under cross-examination she said that she would have known if her son had left Palmerston North at any time between 1 4 and 1 9 December, particularly at night, as they had all slept together on mattresses on the floor of the downstairs lounge. At the conclusion of defence testimony Judge Toomey asked the prosecution if they wanted to take an adjournment to challenge the note from the clinic (produced in Court that day without prior knowledge of the police) and which contained the names of Alice Tuhuwai' and 'George' Hemara as "alibi evidence." The prosecution declined the opportunity for a further remand because, whether or not George Lee Hemara was at the clinic on the 14 December an element of doubt existed about the charge of theft the following night succeeding, as the other person seen in the yard that night with what appeared to be a pair of bolt-cutters, may have committed the offence. The case was dismissed.