KEY POINTS:
No firm date has been set for the trial of four Whakatane police officers who have denied bashing a young man in the town's police station on Labour Day last year.
The hearing is expected to be next February or March in the Tauranga District Court, where a callover was held yesterday. Their attendance was excused.
Sergeant Keith Parsons, 52, Sergeant Erle Busby, 46, Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 54, and Constable John Mills, 38, all entered not guilty pleas earlier to charges of assault with a weapon.
Parsons, Mills and Laing each face one count of using pepper spray on a 20-year-old Edgecumbe man reportedly taken into custody on suspicion of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.
Parsons is also accused of twice using a baton.
Busby faces four charges of assault with a baton.
The alleged prolonged incident was said to have been recorded on video surveillance.
On bail since their first appearance last December, the four accused were suspended on full pay when the criminal charges were laid.
Laing is a veteran of 27 years in the police force; Parsons, 25 years; Busby, 14; and Mills, 7 1/2 years.
- NZPA
