“How is the receiver to know there’s no malice?” Judge Robyn von Keisenberg asked.
The court heard Wright received a call from the police detective in October 2022 about an investigation in to a family member.
Wright became verbally abusive and called the officer a “pig” that “everyone wants to shoot”, threatening to drive over to kill her.
Angry and agitated, she then dialed 111 and told the operator she was going to “blow the officer away and see how funny that is”, calling the officer by her full name.
She continued her tirade when the operator told her the call was recorded.
“No one needs to be dealt with this level of hatred, anger, and violence,” the police officer wrote in a victim impact report sent to the court.
The following month, Wright posted a message on the work Facebook page of a family member claiming the victim was a drug user and supplier, and an insurance fraudster.
She later admitted to police she posted the messages and insisted they were true.
Her lawyer, Peric, told the court Wright did it out of frustration and as retaliation over a family dispute.
A pre-sentence report showed her home environment was concerning. She did not have prior relevant convictions.
Judge von Keisenberg said Wright’s offences were very serious, and it was surprising her lawyer did not file written submissions for her sentencing.
She was not convinced Wright showed genuine remorse. Instead, she had felt sufficiently aggrieved to threaten to kill a serving police officer and continued to feel she had been “done wrong”, the judge said.
“You need to understand the impact of what you do and what you say,” she told Wright. “They are not just words, they cause real harm to people and they don’t deserve it.”
Wright had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of threatening to kill and a second charge of posting a harmful digital communication.
She was sentenced to 12 months of intensive supervision and 60 hours of community work, including an order to undergo an anger management programme, attend counselling, parenting, and tikanga courses.
Earlier on Friday, the hearing was stood down briefly when the judge noticed the woman’s young daughter sitting in the public gallery by herself.
Arrangements were made for her care outside the courtroom so the hearing could continue.
“I’m a solo mother and there’s no one to care for her,” Wright told the court.
