NEWS from Te Kūiti District Court on December 1.
Drunk driver sentenced WHAT was described as a spur of the moment decision to drive home from a birthday party has resulted in Rongo Fa Aosofia being disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay a fine of $850. Duty lawyer Joe Hamblett told Judge Simon Menzies his client had planned to stay overnight in Hamilton following her sister’s birthday party, but after an argument, she grabbed the keys of her mother’s car and drove off. She was stopped at a police checkpoint and recorded as having a breath alcohol level of 853mcg per litre of breath. The legal alcohol limit is 250mcg. Fa Aosofia pleaded guilty to the charge. A breath alcohol reading of that level would usually trigger an interlock license condition, but the judge exempted her from that clause because she did not have a car registered in her name or that she could access. The judge informed Fa Aosofia that once her six-month disqualification had run its course, she would be indefinitely disqualified until such time as she applied for a zero-alcohol license.
Bail opposed POLICE prosecutor Baden Hilton opposed bail for an Ōtorohanga woman who had a warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear for her judge-alone trial. Terri Rangiautea Turner told the judge she had travelled from Tokoroa to make a voluntary appearance at Te Kūiti District Court on Thursday last week in order to get the warrant sorted. After a short break to discuss with duty lawyers what it meant that bail was opposed, she clarified that she had come from Ōtorohanga for the hearing, but the person who had driven her to court travelled from Tokoroa to do so. The driver was identified as the complainant in the case. Duty lawyer Joe Hamblett told Judge Menzies he was not in a position to make a bail application on behalf of the defendant, given this was his first time seeing the case, and was unable to fight the prosecutor’s opposition. “I’m sorry you’ve made a lot of these problems for yourself,” the judge told Turner before remanding her in custody. She was to stay in custody until her assigned counsel could be contacted and she could appear for a bail hearing by audio-visual link (AVL) in Rotorua District Court the following day.
Nominal date set NO time was available in the court schedule to set a trial date for Michael Riwhi Fred Martin, who is defending charges of threatening to kill, two assaults, contravening a protection order, and intentional damage. He appeared last week for a nominal date set a month ago when there was also no time available on the schedule for court staff to allocate for his trial. Martin was remanded in custody until his next nominal date, in February next year.
Outburst after hearing FOUR members of Terangi Trangmar’s family sat in the public gallery during his short appearance by AVL from custody for a nominal hearing, set in October to try find a date for his trial. Although Trangmar was on the screen, no lawyer was present. Trangmar told the judge he thought his lawyer might be sick and asked if there was a chance he could get bail before Christmas. With no lawyer present and no bail application filed, a bail hearing could not proceed and Trangmar’s hearing ended with him being assigned another nominal date. One of Trangmar’s supporters took issue with the lack of action taken during the hearing and had an outburst of expletives directed generally at the judge and others in the court. He was urged to be quiet by others present and was directed out of the courtroom by police.
Guilty plea MELISSA June Houghton pleaded guilty to unlawfully getting into/upon a motor vehicle, intentional damage and failing to answer police bail. She was convicted and remanded on bail to appear in February for sentencing.
Unexpected pleas THE hearing scheduled for Douglas Rex Kawerau began with his lawyer seeking leave to withdraw as his legal representation due to the two “reaching a dead end.” During discussions about getting another lawyer assigned to his case and the timeline that would involve, Kawerau, who is being held in custody, announced he wanted to enter pleas immediately. “I just want to get this shit over and done with,” he told the judge from the dock. “I’ll just go guilty now.” Judge Menzies asked the registrar to read the charges to Kawerau in order for him to enter pleas. Not guilty was his plea to a charge of threatening to kill. To a second charge of threatening to kill, with a different victim to the first charge, he pleaded guilty. Kawerau also pleaded guilty to breaching conditions of an intensive supervision sentence and failing to report for his sentence of community work. He is next due to appear in February.
