Policeman taken to task over failed charge

Judge believes defendant’s account

POLICE failed by a ‘‘wide margin’’ to prove a Dunedin student was intending to drive while drunk in Wanaka last year, a judge says.

Judge David Saunders acquitted Luka Lucy Letica (19) of an attempttodrive charge at her trial in the Queenstown District Court earlier this week.

He also criticised the notetaking and case documentation of arresting officer Constable Bruce McLean, saying he changed his evidence at a late stage in an ‘‘attempt to cover a weak case’’.

Letica told the court she and friend Madison Rouse drove to Wanaka on May 6, planning to walk up Mt Isthmus at sunrise the next day.

They planned to sleep in her Land Rover Discovery while it was parked in Ardmore St, wake up at 3am and drive with a friend of Ms Rouse to the start of the walking track.

After having dinner at a restaurant, they spent a few hours at a bar with two male friends, who then accompanied the pair back to her vehicle.

She then decided to set a wakeup alarm on her phone, but could not find it in the dark. Concerned about the state of her car’s battery, she started the engine before turning on the interior lights and headlights to help her find the phone.

Giving evidence, Const McLean said he was walking along Ardmore St about 12.20am when he heard the Land Rover’s engine start and saw the headlights go on.

When he spoke to the defendant, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, he could smell alcohol.

She failed to complete a breathalcohol test, despite three attempts, because she would not blow into the unit with enough force.

A subsequent breath test at the police station returned a result of 609mcg.

Later, while driving the defendant to a Wanaka property where she stayed the night, she told him she had been planning to move her car closer to the lakefront, he said.

Under crossexamination by Letica’s counsel, Stuart Grieve QC, Const McLean said he could not recall the defendant denying she intended to drive, nor could he remember her saying she had turned on her headlights to find her phone.

However, he admitted his recollection was wrong after Mr Grieve played a cellphone video, recorded by one of the male friends, in which the defendant could be heard saying both those things.

Letica also strongly denied telling the officer at any stage she had planned to move her vehicle closer to the lakefront, Mr Grieve said.

Summing up, Judge Saunders said the police case ‘‘fails not by a narrow margin, but by a wide margin’’.

Despite the fact both women were drinking on the night in question, he was satisfied the defendant’s evidence was reliable and that Ms Rouse’s evidence had supported it ‘‘to some extent’’.

Const McLean had incorrectly inferred the defendant intended to drive, even though that might have appeared the case ‘‘at first blush’’.

Evidence by Ms Rouse’s friend, Jamie Hodge, showed there had been an arrangement in place for him to meet the women at their car later that morning and drive them to the start of the track.

The officer’s evidence had also been inaccurate in several respects, the judge said.

He had claimed Letica refused to provide a breathalcohol test when in fact she had failed to record a result as a result of not blowing into the testing device properly.

He had also failed to record in his notebook Letica’s denial of intending to drive.

Finally, in an attempt to bolster the prosecution’s case, he had claimed Letica said she was planning to drive her vehicle from where it was parked to a location nearer the lake.

That statement had not been in Const McLean’s draft brief disclosed to Mr Grieve last year, Judge Saunders said.