Hero medal for cop on kidnap charge
Community award goes to officer stood down after allegedly staging mock arrest to frighten teenager
A senior police officer charged with kidnapping i s set to be awarded a Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero medal.
Last month Detective Inspector Hurimoana Dennis — a strategic adviser in Maori affairs for the police — was charged with kidnapping, along with Sergeant Vaughan Perry. They have pleaded not guilty and will reappear in court in February.
The charges relate to an alleged mock arrest in a bid to end a relation- ship between two teens last year.
The Weekend Herald can reveal that Dennis will be presented with a Kiwibank Local Hero medal on Wednesday.
He has been selected along with 65 others, including Olympic bronze medallist Eliza McCartney, My Food Bag founder Nadia Lim and comedian and mental health campaigner Mike King.
The awards recognise ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities.
Dennis is the chairman of Te Puea marae, which made national headlines for helping Aucklanders affected by the housing crisis during winter. The charitable trust generated huge public support after it welcomed families and individuals who had been living rough in cars, garages and on the streets.
Volunteers also flocked there to help feed, clothe and provide shelter for the growing number of homeless.
“It’s an awesome privilege,” Dennis said of the honour.
But he said that with the recent charges, the past few months had been “hell” for him and very stressful for his family.
He was tired of being the “big brown elephant in the room where everyone’s talking about you, but not talking to you. “The irony hasn’t escaped me that I am being feted on the one hand and slated on the other.” The Auckland ceremony for the Kiwibank Local Hero awards will be held at Motat. Kiwibank national awards manager Glyn Taylor confirmed the organisers were aware of the kidnapping charge that Dennis was facing.
“We understand they are charges, not that he has been found guilty,” he said. “He was nominated before those charges became official. We were certainly aware of the circumstances but until such time as it goes before the courts his nomination stands.”
He said Dennis’ nomination for a Local Hero medal “centred around the work he’s done with the homeless crisis, which was serious, and his work with the marae”.
“We felt it would be appropriate to continue with the recognition in that regard.”
Dennis’ friendship with an influential Maori family triggered the events leading to his suspension in September last year.
The family disapproved of their 17- year- old grandson’s relationship with a 15- year- old girl and it is claimed that they turned to Dennis for advice. A complaint was laid with the police and the boy was formally warned about underage sex.
But the relationship did not end and it is alleged that Dennis arranged for the boy to return to the Auckland Central police station.
He attended, with his parents, and was told that he could be charged with a sex crime if he continued seeing the girl.
Living with family in Sydney was suggested as a solution, so the teenager agreed to move there — after being put in a cell in the police station.
The alleged mock arrest arranged by Dennis was to show the risks and potential criminal consequences of underage sex, according to a source.