Kiri Allan to go on trial this week for crash, refusing to accompany police

Former Justice Minister Kiri Allan will go on trial this week for an incident in which she allegedly crashed a car and refused to accompany police in July last year.

Allan, who resigned her portfolios and left politics after the incident, has elected a judge-alone trial, earlier telling the Herald she wanted to test an apparent grey area in the law about the right to consult a lawyer.

She has previously pleaded not guilty to careless driving and failing to accompany police. She had crashed into a parked car on Evans Bay Parade in Roseneath on the evening of July 23.

A photo taken in the aftermath shows her vehicle on an angle, in the middle of the road, with the headlights pointing in the direction of the ute she had collided with.

Allan allegedly refused to accompany police, and was arrested and held in the police cells overnight.

She is yet to appear in court, having had all her hearings administratively adjourned since being charged, but her trial is due to begin in the Wellington District Court on Wednesday morning this week.

Allan earlier said she had pleaded not guilty to the charge of failing to accompany a police officer to test what she saw as a grey area “based on the legal principle that all New Zealanders are entitled to consult with a lawyer”.

Allan had requested to speak to a lawyer immediately before and after her arrest by police.

The Bill of Rights Act states everyone who is arrested or detained under any enactment must be informed at the time of the arrest of the reason for it, and “shall have the right to consult and instruct a lawyer without delay and to be informed of that right”.

Allan said there was a lack of certainty as to the point at which that right applied, according to a number of lawyers she had engaged who had both prosecution and defence experience. She said it seemed to be a grey area, which was not ideal when it came to exercising a fundamental human right.

Kiri Allan told the Herald about the night that ended her political career. Photo / Alan Gibson - Gibson Images Ltd.

“Most New Zealanders would agree that [for] both those that enforce the law and those that are subject to the law, when it comes to rights impacting on the liberty of people to not be arbitrarily arrested or detained, [the rule] should be black and white. The fact that it is not should be of great concern to every person in this country who believes in democracy and civil liberties.

“If [I am] successful in the courts, the police can be found to have illegally arrested and detained the first Māori Minister of Justice.”

Six months after the crash, Allan told the Herald it had happened shortly after she had returned to work to deal with a change in Labour’s justice policies after a mental health break.

“I couldn’t understand what I was doing back at work and there were so many areas of life that were unravelling.

“I got to that point where I had decided I wanted to take my life that evening and had a very clear plan, and went to execute that plan and commenced that process . . . I made that decision to drive. And it’s one I’ll regret forever.”

Kiri Allan crashed into a parked car on Evans Bay Parade, Roseneath.

She said it was raining, she crashed, and people immediately recognised her, some media getting alerted to it.

“It was a pretty intense evening. You make a series of decisions — I made a series of decisions. You regret them for a lifetime.”

Allan said she did not try to blame either her mental health struggles or other people for what happened that night or leading up to it. She said she made the decisions and they were not good ones.

“Do I recognise the Kiri Allan that was in that state then? Yes, I do. Is it necessarily the person that I am now? No. A large percentage of the population have mental health issues and it’s about managing those.

“If I look at how my mental health may have impacted on the way I operated, well, it was my responsibility to manage that aspect of my life and I didn’t do that very well.”

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.