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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, No 5. April 3 1975

From the Courts

page 4

From the Courts

Drawing of a judge speaking next to a desk

It's Most interesting to walk from the No.1 courtroom in the Magistrate's Court upstairs to the smaller courts, Nos. 1 and 3, where predominently though not exclusively, traffic cases are heard. It appears that the more 'socially acceptable' offences are heard in these courts, those with less social condemnation, what people consider more as technical offences without the 'evil' of a 'real crime'. This results in several interesting consequences. Firstly the atmosphere is much less tense; the magistrate can sometimes be congenial and often the defendant doesn't even have to stand in the dock. What is even more startling is the defendants them-selves, they are by and large dressed more expensively and furthermore they are so much more articulate, with an understanding of the court process so they can speak up on their own behalf and say all the right things to the magistrate. It appears that this type of offence is committed more by a different class of people and as a result of the channelling processes of the administration in the court you can see two different types of 'justice' at work, just one floor away.

* * *

Mr Monaghan SM sentenced a man to two weeks' imprisonment for being drunk in a public place, 'to get closer supervision of his problem'. Surely a magistrate in his position should be aware just what prisons are like, that they offer no form of treatment at all. All informed and intelligent authorities on prison conditions and functions recognise that prisons in the present form serve only a punitive function at best and recommend that short prison sentences not be given. Some sort of medical treatment might be more effective, I don't know, but I'm sure that two weeks in Mt Crawford would do a man like this no good at all.

* * *

Before Mr Sullivan SM, a youth was charged with theft of a police rail-pass which he had found at the Palmerston North railway station and kept. It seems a little dubious that the police had any prior knowledge that he had it and I believe they stopped and searched him because of his appearance; shaven head, tattooes, including a borstal cross, old clothes and heavy boots; and charged him with its theft, having found the pass on him.

It was a petty offence, the pass was only good to him as curio value, yet he had to go through the rigmarole of appearing in court when most people would have got off with a warning. This is a waste of the court's time and resources and the sort of action that can only further embitter this person's outlook on the police and the law, reinforcing the polarised attitudes that already exist between the police and this class of people that public opinion seems to think spawns 'criminals.'

* * *

Dun Mihaka appeared before Mr Monaghan SM in an attempt to have a hearing on an assault charge, that was to be heard on April 24 to be brought forward. The charge was originally laid in early February and a not guilty plea was entered, whereupon the case was remanded for three months.

It was Mr Mihaka's submission that his case was prejudiced by the delay, in that witnesses would be harder to locate and would perhaps be less sure of the details of the event. He pointed out the anomaly that if he had entered a guilty plea the case would have been heard immediately, which is as it should be, and claimed that this type of belaying action by the court was a 'further plot to suppress the people.'

Without being quite so emotive, I would agree with the substance of his argument. It seems that often people plead guilty to offences to get them over and done with, so they don't have things hanging over their heads for too long. Witnesses do tend to forget details with the passage of time and their testimonies would generally be considered secondary to a contrary police report so that delay of this sort must swing the balance in favour of the police case.