Judge slams police system
West Coast criminals may gamble on escaping a conviction because of the failings of a centralised police filing and briefing system, a district court judge suggests.
Substantial delays getting police files from Nelson to Greymouth continue to cause serious problems for the Greymouth District Court, Judge Jane Farish says.
She hopes the police area commander will review the process and address a problem that has been going on since the region’s centralised briefing unit was established in Nelson.
As it stands, there is no incentive for a defendant to ‘‘put their hand up’’ early when they know there is a good chance their case may be affected by the system, she says.
A defendant may think there is a ‘‘very good chance’’ witnesses will be lost or may not attend, or that the case will be so inadequately briefed – from a distance – that ‘‘they are likely to get off’’.
‘‘That is not in the best interests of the community here in Greymouth,’’ she says in a minute issued in court.
In the minute, the judge refers to the discharge of Steven Michael Bellis, who was accused of slashing 50 tyres in Greymouth in May last year.
He was arrested in October, 2017, and spent five months in custody before being granted electronic bail. He was due to have a defended hearing on August 8.
In her minute, Judge Farish says she discharged Bellis because police prosecutor Gul Quaisrani reviewed the file and ‘‘responsibly’’ offered no evidence.
She asked Quaisrani if the case was dropped because the file arrived late from the police’s centralised briefing unit in Nelson.
In the minute, she says there had been ‘‘a number of problems this week with witnesses not being available, or witnesses being contacted late due to the centralised briefing unit holding the files for a reasonably lengthy period of time and then them being referred back to Greymouth on the Friday before a week of fixtures’’.
It was causing problems for the
court because police officers in charge of files lost contact with witnesses.
‘‘This week we had defended hearings which have been nearly two years old, and therefore there have been a number of problems with the witnesses because contact with them has been lost and also they are not familiar with the material that they are supposed to be giving evidence about.’’
The files needed to be sent to Greymouth from Nelson at least 14 days before a hearing so the prosecutor could adequately review them.
Officers would also be able to contact witnesses to make sure they were aware when they were due in court – and to support them if they were vulnerable.
‘‘A number of witnesses this week have been vulnerable and have not appeared due to the late return of the file from Nelson,’’ she says.
‘‘This is not the first time I have
made this observation. It’s an ongoing problem for a number of years since the centralised briefing unit was in place and therefore I would hope that the area commander reviews the process by which these files are being handled by Nelson.’’
West Coast area commander Inspector Mel Aitken said police had
taken the judge’s comments on board. They were also reviewing the Bellis case.
Bellis’ lawyer Marcus Zintl said the evidence in the case ‘‘never changed right from the get-go so why it took the police so long to come to their senses I don’t know.
‘‘I don’t know what the police do with their files and can’t comment on that, but the real tragedy in all of this is Mr Bellis spent five months in custody and he’ll never get that time back,’’ he said.
A spokesperson for Police Minister Stuart Nash said he was aware that police were reviewing their file management and case management systems. ‘‘Police are looking at ways they can provide a better and more consistent service to victims and frontline officers. Mr Nash has been advised that no decisions have been made about future structures and that staff are being consulted as part of the process.’’
‘‘This is not the first time I have made this observation. It’s an ongoing problem for a number of years since the centralised briefing unit was in place . . .’’ Judge Jane Farish