KEY POINTS:
Key dates in Clint Rickards' career.
1979 - Rickards joins the police as a cadet, three days after his 18th birthday.
1980s - Serves in Rotorua.
1997 - At 36, Rickards becomes the youngest police district commander, when put in charge of Gisborne.
1998 - Moved to run the Waikato district.
2000 - Pushes for more Maori to join the police saying: "years ago I had the option of being a good boy or a bad boy, but fortunately I was given a steer in the right direction".
2001 - Made one of three assistant police commissioners.
2003 - Appointed Auckland City district commander.
January 31, 2004 - Accused of taking part in the rape of a teenage girl in 1986. Louise Nicholas says she was raped and violated with a baton by the three officers in Rotorua.
February 2, 2004 - Prime Minister Helen Clark says allegations about Rickards were a factor in her not approving him for the job of deputy commissioner, in 2000.
February 3, 2004 - Stood down on full pay. Prime Minister announces a Commission of Inquiry into the allegations.
July 26, 2005 - Committed to stand trial on historical allegations of rape, with former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.
March 13, 2006 - Trial starts in High Court at Auckland. Rickards appears in full police uniform.
March 31, 2006 - Jury finds the trio not guilty. Rickards weeps when the last not guilty verdict is read out. Acquitted of eight charges, including two of rape, one of sexual violation by rape, four of indecent assault and one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, against Ms Nicholas in the 1980s.
May 25, 2006 - Justice Tony Randerson announces the trio are to face another trial, this time in relation to allegations made by another woman of sexual offending in the 1980s.
February 19, 2007 - Second High Court trial begins. Rickards, Shipton and Schollum plead not guilty to kidnapping and indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl, the offences alleged to have occurred between November 1983 and August 1984.
March 1, 2007 - All three again found not guilty. Shipton and Schollum return to jail where they are already serving time for sex offences. Rickards slams police investigation as a "shambles" and says he is looking forward to returning to work "as soon as possible". Police say "employment issues" must be addressed and he will stay suspended.
March 5, 2007 - Rickards repeats he wants his job back, as he never broke the law. He gets no support from politicians. "It would be in the best interests if Mr Rickards packed up his tent and moved on," National Party Leader John Key said.
"It's absolutely clear that there's no way that anybody could condone the sort of behaviour those officers were engaged in," Miss Clark said.
May 23, 2007 - Suspension on $150,000 to $159,000 a year extended.
July 8, 2007 - Decision on whether he will face internal disciplinary charges expected within two weeks, police said.
July 22, 2007 - Rickards lays a complaint alleging Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway did not present evidence that would have been favourable to his defence during the trial.
July 26, 2007 - Complaint against Mr Stanaway dismissed by the New Zealand Law Society.
August 8, 2007 - Former top Rotorua cop John Dewar is found guilty of trying obstruct or defeat the course of justice in his handling of sex allegations against Rickards, Shipton and Schollum.
September 16, 2007 - Rickards gets a new $50,000-plus Holden Commodore courtesy of the police, despite being suspended for the last three years.
October 1, 2007 - Ms Nicholas releases a tell-all book to "set the record straight".
October 5, 2007 - Dewar jailed for 4-1/2 years.
October 26, 2007 - Police announce Rickards will face 11 internal disciplinary charges.
November 22, 2007 - Rickards resigns from police. He says all employment issues have now been resolved.
- NZPA
