Alleged HB killer to sue police
Allegations of police negligence during a homicide investigation will go to trial after the Crown failed to get a discharged murder suspect’s bid for compensation thrown out of court.
Zion King is suing police after he spent 16 months in prison following his 2008 arrest for the alleged murder of his Napier neighbour, Chattrice Maihi-Carroll.
King’s first trial was aborted in 2009 before any evidence was heard, with the presiding High Court judge declaring a mistrial.
A re-trial was scheduled the next year but King was discharged at the start of that hearing after private investigators working for the defence found evidence that contradicted the prosecution’s case.
King had been on parole when he was charged with fatally stabbing MaihiCarroll, a 46-year-old mother-offive.
He was recalled to prison to serve the last 16 months of his previous sentence and, upon his release, faced seven months of stringent bail conditions before his 2010 re-trial began.
King claims he suffered psychological harm and damage to his reputation, as well as the loss of his job as a result of the murder charge.
In 2012, the Government turned down his application for compensation, saying that he did not qualify under the Cabinet’s guidelines because he had not been pardoned nor had a conviction quashed by the courts.
Last year, King filed a lawsuit against police, claiming they did not have a prima facie case against him when they charged him with murder, and that officers had acted negligently while investigating the death of Maihi-Carroll.
At a court date last December, the Crown argued that King’s compensation request should be struck out.
But in a judgment released yesterday, High Court Associate Judge Warwick Smith ruled that King’s claims of negligence related to police actions after he was charged so the case could proceed to trial.
However, the judge rejected other negligence claims from the period before his arrest. King’s compensation bid is likely to be heard in the High Court within a few months.
He refused to appear on TVNZ’s Sensing Murder show last year when the programme investigated Maihi-Carroll’s killing, saying he was focused on his compensation claim. ‘‘I definitely want her killer to be found,’’ he said back then.
Police have said their investigation into Maihi-Carroll’s death remains open and they would welcome any information from the public in relation to the case.