The woman said she met Rickards through convicted rapist Brad Shipton, then a police officer, who befriended her when investigating an accident in which her husband was killed. She said she felt manipulated into having consensual group sex.
She said Rickards would take her from Rotorua to a meeting place along the road to Tauranga, where Shipton was stationed and they would have group sex in the police car or on its bonnet.
She said Rickards once received an urgent call on his police radio, told her she would have to find her own way home, but when she refused he made her lie down in the back.
"He was a police officer on duty, what he put [me] through was not acceptable," she said yesterday.
"I remember these incidents like yesterday, they don't go away and I wanted to face him and tell him that."
Mr Rickards denied the woman's allegations through his lawyer, John Haigh, QC.
Mr Haigh said Mr Rickards described the woman labelling him a coward as "absurd".
"His record with the police reflects his bravery and courage, particularly during the many years he worked as an undercover officer."
The police disciplinary hearing was set for February but the Weekend Herald has learned a preliminary hearing, where Mr Haigh was to challenge the admissibility of some evidence, was due to take place in Auckland yesterday.
It was called off late on Thursday. The discussion between Mr Rickards and police chiefs over his resignation was so secret the officers involved in the process were still preparing to go ahead the next day.
The woman came forward after the Louise Nicholas allegations broke in 2004 and she saw former detective inspector John Dewar claiming he did not socialise with Shipton and Rickards.
The woman revealed she had group sex with Shipton and Dewar, and gave evidence of this at the trial this year where Dewar was convicted of covering up Louise Nicholas' rape allegations.
