Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Former Officer Quietly Being charged with Crime

A former Christchurch police officer has appeared in court charged in a rare private prosecution stemming from an arrest she made.

The woman was granted name suppression when she appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday, Christchurch Court News reported.

Defence counsel assigned by the Police Association, Steve Hembrow, told Judge David Holderness that the woman had been a police officer at the time of the alleged incident, but had since resigned.

The judge granted the order for name suppression, saying there was no public interest in her name being published at this point.

The prosecution has been brought by a friend of a man the officer arrested at what began as a traffic stop. A dispute took place in a person's driveway.

The prosecution is seeking police disclosure of notebooks and records.

The judge said he had no jurisdiction to order a defendant to make documents available through discovery. The application will have to be made directly to the police.

The judge remanded the woman for a status hearing.

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