A warrant was issued for a woman who may, or may not, have been in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.
It was not until the third call for Jane Louise Kellahan (49), of Wanaka, facing one charge of assault on January 3, at Wanaka, that a woman in the public gallery made herself known.
"That sounds like my name, your honour, but I’ll have to see that in writing," she told Judge Russell Walker.
Judge Walker asked the woman if her name was the same as the defendant’s, and if she shared the same birth date.
She replied by asking the judge: "If I write four plus four on a piece of paper, does that equal eight, your honour?"
The woman was asked to come forward, twice.
She then stated she would stand, on the condition she did not "waive my common law rights".
Judge Walker told the woman if she was not the defendant he would issue a warrant for the defendant’s arrest.
"That’s interesting," the woman replied.
"How do you arrest something that doesn’t exist?
"How do you arrest a person that is a dead entity?"
The judge told the woman if she was not the defendant he would issue a warrant for the defendant’s arrest, to which she replied "good luck with that", before requesting to submit paperwork to prove she was not a "legal" entity.
The warrant for arrest was subsequently issued.
- After a judge-alone trial in the Queenstown District Court on December 15, 2021, Kellahan was found not guilty on the assault charge.
