Police cleared of meddling in sexual assault case
A senior police officer did not interfere with a case where his friend was accused of sexual assault, an independent inquiry has found.
The authority also found police were right to not charge the accused, despite at one stage believing they had enough evidence to prosecute.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority released its findings on the decision-making in a sexual assault investigation in Palmerston North yesterday.
It found Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan, who had a potential conflict of interest, was not involved in the case and was not a factor in police’s decision not to prosecute the alleged offender.
The alleged sexual assault occurred in the early hours of December 7, 2016, following a party.
According to a report outlining the authority’s findings, when the woman made a complaint to a police detective in March 2017 she expressed concern Sheridan had a conflict of interest.
He was friends with the alleged offender, Awapuni racehorse trainer Roydon Bergerson, through the racehorse industry.
The woman was assured Sheridan would not take part in the investigation.
Later in the year, after police
decided not to bring charges against Bergerson, the woman requested a copy of the police file and noticed Sheridan had checked off a job sheet by another officer working the case.
It led her to believe Sheridan had skewed the decision to not press charges and she wanted a review of his involvement.
But the authority found Sheridan had never sighted the job sheet, his name only appearing on the form because he was the other officer’s supervisor, and they had never discussed the case.
Officers told the authority supervisors hardly ever checked job sheets, with the checking off part ‘‘largely meaningless’’.
The authority found Sheridan had nothing to do with the case, so there was no conflict of interest.
The authority also had no issue with police not charging Bergerson, despite an officer noting in October 2017 they had enough evidence and ‘‘the investigation and prosecution should now be expedited’’.
That had changed by February 2018, with a different officer citing a lack of corroboration from others near the alleged assault and the negative impact of a trial on the complainant.
The officers told the authority they changed their minds because they thought a jury was unlikely to convict Bergerson, and the authority found it could not say it was the wrong decision after reviewing the evidence.
Although an officer met the complainant in March 2018 to explain the decision, and she was happy with how she was treated at the time, police did not send her a letter with written reasons why they did not prosecute.
The authority said police should have sent that letter.
Sheridan said he did not want to comment.