.
Teen crashes truck then squabbles with police
By JARED MORGAN – Friday, 19 December 2008
A 17-year-old who police said stole his grandfather's rural mail truck and crashed it through a bridge barrier into a river was then caught on camera in altercations with bystanders and police.
Dylan Joshua Harvey appeared in the Invercargill District Court yesterday charged with theft of the truck, reckless driving, threatening to injure, resisting and assault on police. .35pm on Wednesday.
Constable Steve Winsloe, of Tuatapere, said the teen lost control of the new vehicle on a moderate bend, crashing through a wooden barrier at one end of the Orawia Stream bridge on the Ohai-Clifden highway about 9.
Harvey was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash but escaped unscathed and began hassling a truck driver who had stopped to help and was calling emergency services, police said.
"He became airborne, hitting the opposite bank before ending up partially submerged," Mr Winsloe said.
That squabble and his friends' efforts to restrain him and dry him off were caught on camera by Rural Media art director Joe Fountain, who lives near the bridge. He was pretty lucky.
"I heard the car coming round a corner when it started to fishtail before going through the barrier between the concrete side of the bridge and a power pole.
"He (the driver) was obviously pretty distressed and confused."
Mr Fountain said his first instinct was to grab his digital video camera.
"His mates arrived a fair while before the cops. You can hear him hurling a fair bit of abuse on the tape," he said."
A struggle that developed between the man and Mr Winsloe as he tried to arrest him was also captured by Mr Fountain."
A struggle that developed between the man and Mr Winsloe as he tried to arrest him was also captured by Mr Fountain.
Harvey made a brief appearance in the Invercargill Distict Court yesterday.
Police were still awaiting the results of a blood-alcohol test and more charges against the teen were likely, Mr Winsloe said.
Harvey will reappear in court on January 20. Judge Kevin Phillips remanded him on bail with strict conditions, including a 24-hour curfew.
.
The riddle of the sacked lawyer
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Police have inquired into a phone call Solicitor-General David Collins made to a government department boss, which is believed to have led to a lawyer's sacking.
The call was made to Conservation Department director-general Al Morrison and has been linked to the firing of Sue Grey, who worked as a lawyer for the department. She was sacked three weeks after the phone call.
Mr Ewen-Street has laid a complaint with police.
Ms Grey's partner – former Green MP Ian Ewen-Street – believes Dr Collins made the telephone call because she is a lawyer in a Supreme Court case involving Dr Collins' boss, Attorney-General Michael Cullen.
Dr Collins says he is "very confident" police will find no case to answer. He believes Dr Collins has an interest in the outcome of the case because it now involves a Supreme Court judge and Dr Cullen, who has been joined to the case as a defendant.
In the August 26 phone call, Dr Collins told Mr Morrison that Ms Grey had a conflict of interest because she worked for DOC, but she was also involved in a private capacity in the Saxmere case, a court case alleging judicial bias. .
The phone call came two days after a Sunday Star-Times article about a Supreme Court judge's multimillion-dollar business relationship with a top lawyer in the Saxmere case. He said he wanted the issue resolved quickly as a result of media interest.30am the same day and asked about her involvement in the Saxmere case. She said her bosses were informed throughout, and the case was "completely separate" from her work for DOC.
She told him that DOC had already agreed to her working on the case till it ended.
Despite this, she offered to resign from DOC that day.
Despite this, she offered to resign from DOC that day.
Mr Morrison, a former journalist, recorded his phone conversation with Ms Grey without telling her. Three weeks later, Mr Morrison fired her by e-mail.
He expressed concern to Ms Grey that her clients were "suing" Dr Cullen while she was working for DOC – and said her roles were in conflict. He told The it was the only call he has taped as DOC director-general and he did it as a result of the "significance of the issue".
This centres on whether Justice Wilson fully disclosed his joint ownership ofa multimillion-dollar racehorse stud with barrister Alan Galbraith, QC, who represents the Wool Board in the Saxmere case.
The call came after the focus of the Saxmere case – a legal scrap over Wool Board money – switched to argument about whether former Court of Appeal judge Justice Bill Wilson had a potential conflict of interest in the case. Ms Grey was a lawyer for the losing side.
Mr Galbraith successfully argued an earlier appeal in the case, on which Justice Wilson, and two other judges, ruled.
Mr Ewen-Street believes Dr Collins should not have personally given Mr Morrison advice about Ms Grey in the phone call, as such advice could be seen as trying to influence the outcome of the Saxmere case.
Dr Collins, as legal adviser to Dr Cullen, was involved in giving advice on the appointment of Justice Wilson as a judge, and his rapid promotion to the Supreme Court. He also says he does not appoint judges. He also says he does not appoint judges.
He says he told Dr Cullen of the subsequent police inquiry after Mr Ewen-Street's complaint. He insists he has no conflict of interest and it would have been "remiss" of him not to call Mr Morrison about Ms Grey's involvement with the Saxmere case and of Dr Cullen being joined to the proceedings.
Mr Ewen-Street says the situation was compounded by Mr Morrison's refusal to accept Ms Grey's initial offer to resign. "Instead he repeatedly pressured her to drop the Supreme Court case, a case DOC told Sue she could continue to work on when she joined DOC."
He says she suggested standing down from DOC to manage the "perceived conflict of interest" till the Saxmere case ended – but ended up being sacked instead.
Mr Morrison says the latest development is "nothing more than an employment issue" and he is satisfied he acted fairly.
He says he did not pressure Ms Grey to remove herself from the case and acted on the basis of "my own view and not the solicitor-general's". An independent Queen's Counsel advised him on whether Dr Collins may have had a conflict of interest, considering his junior status to the attorney-general and involvement in Justice Wilson's appointment.
Mr Morrison says he has been interviewed by police after the complaint laid by Mr Ewen-Street but is not aware of any continuing investigation.
THE SAXMERE CASE
The Saxmere saga began as a High Court case taken by a group of wool growers against the Wool Board, challenging how payouts were made. Lawyer Sue Grey acted for the growers before she began working for the Conservation Department. Alan Galbraith, QC, represented the Wool Board.
The growers won round one but lost an appeal argued by Mr Galbraith and heard by the Court of Appeal's Justice Bill Wilson and two other judges. The growers learned Justice Wilson and Mr Galbraith were joint owners of Waikato's Rich Hill racehorse stud.
Justice Wilson, who has now been appointed a Supreme Court judge, disclosed in a phone call to the growers' lead barrister, Francis Cooke, QC, that he shared horse racing interests with Mr Galbraith – but there is dispute about how much the judge said about those interests.
The growers tried to get the appeal decision set aside as "unsafe". They contacted Solicitor-General David Collins, Attorney-General Michael Cullen and Judicial Complaints Commissioner Ian Haynes. But frustrated after months of making little or no ground – and alarmed to hear the Wool Board money they were fighting for was to be paid out – the growers went to the Supreme Court.
They will argue there that Justice Wilson should have excused himself from the case and that a phone call was not the appropriate way to disclose a joint interest with a lawyer. They will also argue that, if he did not see the need to stand down, a business relationship that size should have been disclosed and recorded in open court.
Because Dr Cullen's office represents the public interest and administration of justice, the growers have "joined" him to the case as a defendant. That move is an attempt to get Dr Cullen to make a public stand on their allegations about the level and manner of Justice Wilson's disclosure.
.
Roll up for chance to skate in show
The Monday, 27 October 2008
/
ELECTRIC PERFORMANCE: Mykal Rand plays the part of a toy train as well as being Starlight Express director. Producers were in Wellington at the weekend seeking stunt skaters for the show.
Bit of a daredevil with the skateboard or on in-line skates and can carry a tune? Then roll up for the chance to show your extreme side in a spectacular musical.
The production will roll its way around the TSB Arena before heading to Christchurch and Auckland for seasons of the musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which made its London debut in 1984.
Director Mykal Rand and producers of Starlight Express, simply known to thousands of fans as the musical on roller skates, were in Wellington at the weekend seeking stunt skaters for the show, which has its New Zealand premiere in Wellington next July.
Promoter Stewart Macpherson said cast auditions would be held in Wellington tomorrow, before moving to Christchurch.
The story follows a child's dream in which a train set comes to life, sending the show off on a different trajectory in which all 28 performers take to the stage on skates. Performers must already know how to sing and dance, but if selected would then have up to six weeks' skate training as part of the overall 10-week rehearsal period."
Rand, who also plays Electra the electric train, was part of a small production contingent patrolling Waitangi Park yesterday in the hope of spotting two extreme skaters to fill special daredevil roles in the show.
"They say that if you're a good capable dancer then physiologically you've got the ability to be a skater even if you didn't know you could.
Macpherson said they needed an "extra edge" with the ability to pull off a "trick repertoire" for a show that was not merely a musical but a "theatrical event".
Auckland and Christchurch would also be cased for suitable in-line skaters.