Broadcaster Paul Homes' daughter, Millie Elder, has had drugs charges against her thrown out after the police case fell over in court today.
Elder was arrested in December 2009 after police found cannabis and a methamphetamine pipe in a Mercedes she was driving after she and a group of friends were seen drinking in a central Auckland car park.
Elder pleaded not guilty charges of possession of methamphetamine, cannabis and a pipe, and of obstructing police.
The latter charge arose after she ran away with the car keys from officers who wanted to retrieve a bottle of alcohol from the car. Officers had arrested Elder's passenger and wanted the bottle as evidence.
In Auckland District Court today, Elder's lawyer, Kim Holden, argued her client did not have a case to answer as the police had not proven Elder was drinking in an area which fell under the former Auckland City Council's liquor ban area.
Judge Philippa Cunningham did not allow the prosecution to introduce new evidence in the form of the relevant bylaw as they had already finished presenting their case.
Judge Cunningham said, therefore, the police search of the car could not be proven to be lawful.
"There is no evidence before the court that the car park is an area covered by the Auckland City Council bylaw liquor ban," she said.
"The prosecution has not proven its case because it needed to prove that the arrest of the passenger was lawful. Otherwise, everything that happened to Ms Elder was unlawful."
Judge Cunningham further noted that the case had dragged on for more than a year and Elder had been ready to defend the charges on four different occasions.
Arresting officer Constable Julian Donaldson told the court he noted a strong smell of cannabis upon entering the vehicle, so started a search.
He found about 1g of cannabis wrapped in paper next to the driver's seat, more cannabis in a jacket and a blackened glass pipe in Elder's handbag, which was found to contain traces of methamphetamine.
The prosecution's failure to prove Elder was drinking in an area covered by the liquor ban law did not get Elder off the obstructing police charge, for which she was convicted and discharged.
Elder was further convicted for cannabis-related charges from this January year for which she was ordered to pay $150 plus $138 court costs.
