The witness stayed on the phone with police for 13 minutes, as Marino’s speed fluctuated between 95km/h and 130km/h, with the passenger door remaining open for the majority of that time.
An officer spied the 49-year-old and did a U-turn to pull him over.
The victim immediately jumped out of the car and began crying “hysterically” as she was comforted by a member of the public.
Marino, meanwhile, was seen throwing the woman’s belongings out of the door, then pacing around and making gestures to her, telling police “I haven’t done nothing”.
He then went to leave and pushed past the attending constable who told him he couldn’t go anywhere.
Marino started the car and punched the officer in the lower left arm.
The officer fired his taser, hitting Marino in the chest, before he drove off south on SH1 at speed.
The woman suffered swelling and bruising to her head and scratches to her nose.
‘A mockery of the whole process’
During his sentencing in the Hamilton District Court on Monday, Marino’s counsel Scott McKenna tried to persuade Judge Noel Cocurullo to adjourn the matter as both his client and the victim were keen to meet at a restorative justice conference.
However, Judge Cocurullo wasn’t having a bar of it and declined the request as the victim had now begun blaming herself for events that day.
“Her conduct is making a mockery of the whole process and I fear a further adjournment will bring the court process into disrepute,” he told McKenna.
The woman now claimed that she was trying to jump out of the car but it was Marino who was her “protector”.
The judge said that was “completely at odds” with not only the witness’s testimony during the judge alone trial but Marino’s guilty pleas on day two of that trial, after hearing the woman’s evidence.
“That witness ... was one of the clearest, cogent, and credible independent witnesses I have heard in a very long time.
“She reaffirmed that she was in a position to see a sustained attack by Mr Marino against the person in the front passenger seat.
“I have a clear view that the delaying of this sentencing would serve no useful purpose.
“The victim will continue ... the false narrative and further bolster her narrative that defies logic and common sense.
“It would amount to an abuse of process to the court.”
In mitigation, McKenna added his client was illiterate the first time he met him, but he’d since come a long way.
He had a violent upbringing but he was now committed to focusing on his children.
Crown prosecutor James Lewis said the incident was so serious the victim could have ended up dead that day.
“Thirteen minutes is a long time when you are engaged in a violent context especially when someone is trying to eject you while in a car travelling at high speeds.”
On charges of injuring with intent to injure, dangerous driving, escaping police custody, and aggravated assault, Marino was jailed for three years and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and been a journalist for 20.
