KEY POINTS:
A former cop and brother of a Rich List property magnate asked a stranger to "get me away" from a multi-car horror smash that he allegedly caused, a court has been told.
The Auckland District Court has also heard that Jason Connell Peters, a property developer and model,
later told an attending police officer that he realised he had "really f****d up" and was "probably going to go to jail".
Peters was committed for trial on driving-related charges after appearing for the final day of a depositions hearing in court on Wednesday.
Peters - the brother of property magnate Jamie Peters and a relative of New Zealand First leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters - faces seven charges stemming from a major pile-up on the notorious "unforgiving highway" stretch of SH2 at Maramarua, around 5pm on May 13 last year.
Peters, 41, was driving his brother's $250,000 BMW, which crossed the centre line and collided with an Auckland family's Jeep heading in the opposite direction. The smash left interior designer Michelle Davies hospitalised for several months with possible long-term brain injuries.
He had been returning from a duck-shooting trip with his friend Geoff Thomas, the presenter of TV3's The Outdoors Hour: Outdoors With Geoff. Thomas travelled in another car.
Jason Peters has appeared in advertisements for Kiwibank, Vodafone and Hamilton Casino, and his wife runs talent agency Talento. He faces three charges each of causing injury (to Michelle Davies, Mathew Peters and Anthony Andrew) by carelessly using a vehicle while illegally overtaking; dangerous driving causing injury to the same people; and driving with excess alcohol causing injury. He is also charged with "driving drunk for a third time" after allegedly blowing 679 micrograms per litre of breath shortly after the accident. The limit for an adult is 400.
The Crown alleges Peters fled the scene, hiding in farmland where he was found by the police Eagle helicopter using heat-seeking equipment.
Crown witness and farmer Craig Hills told the court that he had heard the crash from his farm and went to help. What greeted him, he recalled, was "a mess, a real mess" and a screaming child, 7-year-old Gemma Davies, Michelle's daughter.
Hills told the court that when he approached the black BMW he met Jason Peters. "He asked me if I would get him away... he said to get me away from the scene." Hills told Peters: "You can't leave, there is a lady and child in the wagon that you hit."
When an off-duty officer at the scene asked Hills where Peters had gone, he told him he had disappeared.
The police officer who interviewed Peters after he was found allegedly hiding behind a tree, Dale Kahaki, told the court that when he questioned Peters about leaving the scene of the smash, he replied: "I've lost my memory, I don't recall the crash at all... I remember falling into a drain, that is all." Later, in a police vehicle as Peters was taken to a friend in the Bombay Hills, the court was told, he said to the officer: "I've really f****d up, I'm probably going to go to jail for this."
Kahaki said he replied: "That might be the case."
Following last week's decision to commit Peters to trial, Davies' husband Greg told the Herald on Sunday that his family was continuing to recover from the horrific accident, which occurred just one week after the couple were married. "Life will never be the same again, every day is completely different but you just have to carry on," he said. "We live one life one day and another life the next."
Michelle Davies required intense rehabilitation for three months after the crash.
Contacted last week, Peters' hunting companion Geoff Thomas told the Herald on Sunday that he was "obviously" relieved he was not travelling in the BMW at the time of the accident. He was reluctant to talk about his friendship with the wealthy businessman or the multiple charges that he now faces, saying only: "Of course I stand by him".
Jason Peters has been bailed to his home in Dormer Rd, Kaukapakapa, until he reappears in court next month.
