Defendant's evidence lacks credibility

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 28, 8 December 1987, Page 13

Defendant's evidence lacks credibility

The following defended cases were heard by Judge E.W. Unwin in the Ohakune District Court on Thursday 26 November. Police-ser-geant Neil Coker of Ohakune appeared for the prosecution. ★ ★★ Dean Hiroti, 26, unemployed shearer of Raetihi, at an earlier Court hearing, had pleaded not guilty to one charge of causing intentional damage to a glass door belonging to the Ruapehu Hotel in Raetihi and to one charge of using obscene words in a public place (Seddon Street, Raetihi) on 31 July. Court heard how, after being evicted from the public bar of the Ruapehu Hotel, defendant was alleged to have broken the front foyer door of the hotel and later, when arrested, used the words complained of in the charge. The first prosecution witness was Ray Parr, owner and licensee of the Ruapehu Hotel. He gave evidence that when he saw defendant in the public bar on 31 July he reminded defendant that he had been barred and asked him to leave. When defendant replied: "Are you going to make me?" witness decided to call the local constable. Witness then described how, later the same evening there had been another incident involving banging on the hotel's windows and when he went outside to investigate, he saw defendant's car parked outside hotel and heard the front foyer door being smashed. As he ran towards the door he saw defendant run away towards his car and then, when chased, towards the Waimarino Club on the opposite side of the road (Seddon Street). Witness said he was unable to catch defendant so returned to clear up the broken glass and mess at the hotel's door. The costs of replacing the glass panel in the door was estimated to be $360. The second witness was Edna Symes, bar person and part-time receptionist

at the Ruapehu Hotel. She testified that while dealing with a customer at the reception desk in the hotel foyer on the night in question, she heard the sound of breaking glass. As she moved from behind the reception desk into the hotel foyer she saw defendant, wearing a blue swanndri, red trousers and white gumboots, running across Seddon Street towards the Waimarino Club. Under cross examination she said she saw no-one else at that time apart from defendant and the customer she had been attending to at the reception desk in the foyer. The third prosecution witness was Raetihi's police constable John Robinson. He testified that he had been on duty when he received a telephone call from the hotel proprietor at 7pm on 31 July saying that a person who had been barred from the hotel was refusing to leave. He went to the hotel and told defendant to leave. Defendant had left after being warned. About an hour later witness, after receiving another call from the licensee, went to the hotel again and saw the broken glass door. He conducted a search of the area and found the defendant wearing a blue swanndri, red trousers and white gumboots, outside the hotel. When defendant used the words complained of, he was arrested and taken to the Ohakune police station for questioning. Defendant then took the witness stand to give evidence on his own behalf. He said that he had left the public bar when asked to do so by the local police constable and had gone across the road to the 'Cossie Club', before returning to his car outside the hotel. He said that he had sat on the bonnet of the car and denied being drunk ... "I didn't get the chance!" He admitted having an argument on the footpath outside the hotel but denied breaking the glass door

with the broom handle from his (brother's) car. He didn't remember being near the foyer entrance at the time the glass door was broken or running away afterwards. In his summing up Judge Unwin said the defendant's evidence lacked credibility and he found therefore, the charges brought by the prosecution, had been established. He convicted and fined defendant $150, court costs $55 with an order to make immediate payment or face 60 days imprisonment. He was also ordered to make reparation of $255. ★ ★★ Barry Richards, 22, trainee musician of Raetihi, appeared to defend a charge of receiving to which he had originally pleaded not guilty at the Ohakune District Court hearing on 26 March this year. The delay had been necessitated pending the outcome of a Children's and Young Persons court hearing in Auckland on a re-

lated matter. Defendant was charged with receiving a portable JVC radio cassette stereo unit valued at $600 on 23 March. The first witness for the prosecution was a 15-year old farmhand from T e Aroha who told the court that on 22 March he had left Mangere with two friends to travel south to Raetihi. They had stopped the night at Takanini where they had broken into a house from which witness had taken the portable JVC radio cassette stereo unit produced in Court as an exhibit. The witness said that he had then hitch-hiked to Raetihi where he met defendant. He testified that he had given the tape recorder to defendant and asked him to look after it ... "hold onto this until I come down again," he had said. Under cross-examination witness denied he had told defendant the tape recorder had been stolen or that he

had spoken with defendant before the Court case had commenced. The next prosecution witness was police-sergeant Neil Coker who gave evidence that he had gone to an address in King Street, Raetihi, with police constable Brian Wilson on 24 March. He found the JVC tape recorder under the defendant's bed and took it to the Raetihi Police Station. He identified the tape recorder produced in Court as the one he had taken possession of. The final prosecution witness was police constable Trevor Pullen now of Fairlie in the South Island but was, at the time of the alleged offence, Raetihi's local constable. He told the Court that defendant had called into the Raetihi Police Station on 25 March to answer a few questions relating to the tape recorder recovered from a house in King Street. Witness said that defendant had claimed the tape

recorder had been given to him by the first prosecution witness "to look after". He denied knowing it was stolen or that the witness had told him it was stolen. He said that he had not paid anything for it. Following an application by counsel that there was no case to answer because: "Defendant must know at the time of receiving the tape recorder that it was stolen or dishonestly obtained," Judge Unwin summed up. He said that because the prosecution's main witness had departed from his original evidence (in the Children and Young Persons Court case earlier this year) on oath, there was insufficient evidence to show that defendant knew the tape recorder had been stolen. In granting defence counsel's application that there was no case to answer he had to give defendant the benefit of the doubt and the charge was therefore dismissed. Counsel: P. Brown.