Taxi groping trial ends in hung jury
Court appearance in two weeks to decide on retrial
The trial of a taxi driver accused of groping radio host Jay-Jay Feeney has ended in a hung jury. Baljeet Singh’s trial for allegedly indecently assaulting the radio host began on Monday before a jury and Judge Nevin Dawson.
Feeney, the long-time host of The Edge’s breakfast show, waived her right to suppression and has talked about her allegations on social media. Singh denied the charge and entered a not guilty plea last year.
Hours into their deliberations, the jury told the court they were evenly divided on the verdict and were not making any progress. Later they told Judge Dawson they had exhausted all their possibilities. Dawson, who summed up the case yesterday in the Auckland District Court, discharged the jury late in the afternoon. The judge said the jury had done their best. Singh was remanded on bail and will appear in court again in two weeks when the Crown will decide if it will seek a retrial.
The Crown said Feeney has been
a“consistent, candid and straight-up” throughout the trial. But the defence said the 28-year-old had been publicly and falsely accused.
Feeney had been a passenger in Singh’s taxi in the early hours of October 1 last year. This week the court heard Singh asked about her relationship status.
On Monday, Feeney said during the taxi ride Singh “was commenting on how beautiful I was and how I had nice breasts”. She said Singh had also stroked her hand.
The radio host said Singh told her she did not have to pay for the trip. “No pay, I touch your breasts,” Feeney recalled Singh saying. After paying, “he reached over and put his hand down my top, under my bra,” Feeney said.
In his police interview, played in court, Singh denied indecently assaulting Feeney and denied commenting on her breasts. “I didn’t say anything of that sort,” he told police with the assistance of a translator. “No, nothing like that happened. I did not touch her at all.”
ar