KEY POINTS:
A man has been arrested over an incident in which a High Court juror received a note with "not guilty" written beside a swastika emblem.
The juror was discharged from the case after reporting he had found the note left outside his house on Friday morning.
Police this afternoon charged a 40-year-old man with attempting to pevert the course of justice. He is due to appear in Lower Hutt District Court today.
Detective Sergeant Brent Murray said police were not ruling out the possibility that other people may have been involved.
They are opposing bail.
The remaining 11 members of the Wellington High Court jury, who were not told of the note until after the verdicts, found Benjamin Peter McPadden, 19, Jaydon Russell Borland, 31, and Jason George Gregory, 20, guilty of kidnapping 26-year-old Jeremie Kawerninski in Wellington in April last year.
Borland was also found guilty of beating and robbing Kawerninski while Gregory was also found guilty of robbing him.
All three men had pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, causing grievous bodily harm, and robbing Mr Kawerninski of his wallet, clothing, watch and rings.
Mr Kawerninski spent eight days in Lower Hutt Hospital recovering from his injuries.
Gregory and Borland were remanded in custody and all three are due to reappear in the High Court at Wellington for a pre-sentence report on August 10.
A fourth man, Mark Alexander Gage, 31, was discharged from the case last Wednesday because of a lack of evidence.
Justice Mallon initially suppressed all details about the note, but lifted the order when the case finished.
Meanwhile, police are investigating another case of jury intimidation in relation to a trial taking place at Palmerston North District Court.
The alleged incident happened yesterday on the first day of a trial of James Matua Grace, 29, who is facing a charge of causing grievous bodily harm after allegedly bashing a man into a coma last August.
Judge Les Atkins said someone had approached a member of the jury outside the courthouse and "told the juror to see things in a particular way".
"One of the statements that the person allegedly made was that there was a lot more to (the case)," Judge Atkins told the jury.
A Manawatu police spokeswoman today confirmed the incident was being investigated and that more in depth inquiries were likely to be made once the trial had finished.
- NZHERALD STAFF / NZPA
