Cop lucks out in racist rant at casino, but wins $11k police jackpot

A drunk off-duty cop who made insulting racial comments while at a casino, has won $11,250 after the New Zealand Police were found to have acted unfairly towards him.

The Employment Relations Authority ruled Jason Te Huia, a constable in Invercargill, was unjustifiably disadvantaged by the police in their disciplining of him.

Te Huia, according to the ERA decision in his case, was on an off-duty rugby trip when he became heavily intoxicated and made insulting racial comments to an Asian security guard while at SkyCity Casino in Queenstown on September 3, 2016.

After becoming aware of the incident two days later, the police placed Te Huia on restricted duties while the matter was investigated. He appeared in the local District Court and pleaded guilty to using insulting language and was discharged without conviction and ordered to pay the victim $1000.

But later that month, Te Huia was notified by the police that they intended to move “to a preliminary view of the outcome based on the facts as found by the court”.

On October 2, 2017, Te Huia was sent a letter outlining the police’s final decision, issuing him a final written warning for three years with conditions including drug and alcohol screening, that he be stood down from the armed defenders’ squad, be made ineligible for a career progression programme and for the Competency Service Increment (CSI) payment, and that he be subject to supervision.

That same day, Te Huia’s police association representative, Harley Dwyer, emailed the police raising concerns about the 36-month timeframe of the warning and the withholding of three years of CSI payments.

In February 2018, Te Huia filed a statement of problem with the ERA.

On April 11, 2018, Superintendent Paul Anthony Basham reconsidered his decision regarding CSI payments and instead decided Te Huia would be eligible to receive the payments in two years. However, this was still unacceptable to Te Huia, and the ERA forged on to rule in the case.

The authority noted that the loss of three CSI payments was a severe financial penalty of up to $55,000 and that disadvantage was not minor and was financially unfair.

The authority initially awarded Te Huia $15,000 compensation, but made a 25 per cent reduction based on the fact that his conduct which led to the final warning was both causative and blameworthy.