 | NORML News: Police lie in court, again |
 BY CHRIS FOWLIE, Norml News Autumn 2004
Police routinely claim to smell cannabis in order to search anyone they want, but they have again been caught fabricating evidence in court in a case reminiscent of my own trial in 2002, and what has happened to many people at some time.
The Bill of Rights protects against unreasonable search, but is easy for officers to simply claim they smell cannabis and then use the "search without warrant" provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act. With the Police Complaints Authority perceived as a whitewash, and traditional police culture encouraging cops to stick up for each other, it is not often they are caught out.
Justice Rodney Hansen found recently in the High Court at Auckland that Constable Harley Ruakura had made up parts of his encounter with a suspect in order to justify the reason for a drugs search. He claimed that, after he pulled the suspect's car over, he smelt cannabis through the driver's window, and performed a search. A small quantity of P was allegedly found, but no cannabis. Ruakura's account differed from his partner's, UK-import cop Const. Paul Gofton, who told the court that it was he who was driving, and he could not smell any cannabis.
Justice Hansen said "In my judgement, Constable Ruakura's account... is a complete fabrication ... Even if I had accepted Constable Ruakura's account of events, I would have had the greatest difficulty accepting that he had smelled cannabis."
The evidence was ruled inadmissible and the case thrown out.
A similar ruling was given to me, after I was arrested while having a chat on K Rd. Constables from the team policing unit claimed to smell cannabis, but only after they had approached me and demanded I account for myself. All three constables gave differing accounts in court. Judge Gittos ruled the search was a breach of the Bill of Rights and found me not guilty.
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