Prime Minister Helen Clark has accused former police commissioner Peter Doone and his wife Robyn of fighting a political battle rather than a legal one.
The couple plan to sue Helen Clark because they claim she confirmed to a newspaper that Mr Doone said "that won't be necessary" to an officer who had stopped their car in 1999 and was about to breath test Robyn, who was at the time his partner.
Mr Doone quit his job in January 2000 after the controversy and initiated proceedings to sue the Sunday Star-Times for printing the comment -- which it had subsequently retracted and apologised for -- and instead decided to sue the Prime Minister.
Yesterday briefs of evidence prepared for the case were released to media.
"I think the fact the briefs of evidence -- not sworn documents -- were put before the public arena yesterday indicates that Mr Doone and his partner or his lawyers have decided to fight this politically not legally," Helen Clark told Newstalk ZB this morning.
However, Mrs Doone said that comment was wrong and the couple were determined to see the case through the courts.
"She thinks we're fighting politically not legally? Quite to the contrary that's why we are going down the legal avenue," Mrs Doone said.
Lawyer John Upton QC would file their papers with the High Court as soon as he could.
"Definitely we will be pursuing the legal avenue as we've said from the beginning."
The couple deny being behind the papers being released and say they are not out to get publicity.
"Remember right at the beginning when we said we were filing suit we never said who it was... politics is not our thing. We're quite private people, this adds more to the stress," Mrs Doone said.
"We just want to do this correctly through the legal process."
Helen Clark continued to criticise Mr Doone for his decision to take the action saying the Government had been about to look at procedures for dismissing him when he agreed to a settlement.
"We did that at some cost to our reputation -- you may remember at the time people screamed golden handshake and how terrible and he should have been sacked," Helen Clark said.
"But we let him go with as much dignity as could be marshalled after the incident, which official reports deemed to be undesirable and inappropriate so to feel this somewhat down the track is a bit ironic when I think we did do our best to ensure he left with some dignity."
Helen Clark said it was irrelevant if Mr Doone said "that won't be necessary" or "we'll be on our way" as Constable Brett Main had said.
However the Doones say publicity over the case contributed to Mr Doone resigning.
Helen Clark said the government could not be seen to treat the police commissioner differently from the general public.
"The final point I make is when the new government was facing a very difficult situation -- if you let this go are you not saying there are two standards of law; one for the commissioner whose job it is to uphold the law who can get out of the car and say things which has the effect of stopping the law taking its course -- one for him and one for the general population. That wasn't tolerable."
Helen Clark said she was forced to give evidence in the case when their lawyers made it clear she would be subpoenaed.
"I decided it wouldn't be appropriate for me to be subpoenaed and that it would be better if I gave a brief of evidence, but I gave that brief of evidence under duress."
- NZPA
PM accuses Doones of playing politics
Former police commissioner Peter Doone and Prime Minister Helen Clark. File picture
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