KEY POINTS:
The man accused of a hit-and-run on Matakana mother-of-two Melissa Rowthorne is one of her neighbours.
Steven William Terzieff, a 46-year-old fitter, lives on the same road as Rowthorne and her husband Nigel.
Terzieff pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to stop to ascertain injury and careless use of a vehicle causing injury when he appeared before the North Shore District Court on Thursday.
He was remanded to his home address to reappear on May 7.
Rowthorne is still recovering in Auckland Hospital after suffering a fractured vertebra, fractured skull and severe bruising when she was knocked down at about midnight on Waitangi Day.
A neighbour walking her dog found her lying in a ditch a few hundred metres from her home the next morning.
At an earlier court appearance, Judge Barbara Morris said it was "hardly ideal" that Terzieff should be remanded to the same road as the Rowthornes.
She said Terzieff was not to have any contact with the complainant or visit her home. "By necessity you have to go past it, but you are certainly not to stop."
Terzieff's interim name suppression was lifted on Thursday.
