SOFT NEWS NT Police arrest Aboriginal woman in her own home for being drunk

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Um, our police hard at work here in Australia.


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NT Police arrest Aboriginal woman in her own home for being drunk
By Rosa Ellen
9 hrs ago
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Police officers were conducting "proactive DV compliance checks" when the woman was charged.© ABC News: James Dunlevie Police officers were conducting "proactive DV compliance checks" when the woman was charged.

An Aboriginal woman in Katherine has been breath-tested in her own home by Northern Territory Police, despite officers receiving no complaint about her, and arrested for being drunk.

The charge against the woman, Aileen Roy, was dismissed in Katherine's Local Court, but NT Police appealed the decision and pursued the case to the Supreme Court, where a judge also rejected it.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency lawyer Beth Wild said the decision would have implications for others in the same position.

"The privacy that we have has to be balanced against police coming into our homes and conducting breath tests," she said.

"What we're seeing here is that people who are doing nothing else but being drunk are being hauled before the courts."

'The evidence was unlawfully obtained'

In April last year police launched Operation Haven, which targets domestic and family violence in Territory towns where alcohol abuse is rife.

The operation had recently been extended to Katherine, where police officers were conducting "pro-active DVO compliance checks".

Ms Roy had a domestic violence order out against her, a condition of which was that she wasn't to be in the company of her partner while she was drinking.

In the early afternoon, three police officers appeared at the door of the unit that she and her partner shared and told her they "wanted to conduct a domestic violence order check".

One of the constables said he thought if Ms Roy was drunk her partner, who suffered seizures, may be in danger.

Ms Roy stepped outside and blew a positive alcohol reading and was then taken to the watch house.

NT Police argued they had the powers to take someone to the watch house under domestic violence laws, but the Supreme Court Justice Dean Mildren disagreed.

"I find that the police had no power to go to Ms Roy's home and take a sniff of her breath and then require [her] to provide a sample of her breath, that they were trespassers when they entered her alcove and knocked on the door," he said in his decision.

"Consequentially, the evidence was unlawfully obtained."

In cross-examination the constable involved agreed that the police had received no complaint of a potential breach of the DVO.

NT Police said their "powers in relation to domestic violence have not changed and police will still be able to respond to reports of domestic violence committed at residences and enter the premises if deemed necessary under the legislation".

But Ms Wild said Operation Haven is already thoroughly carried out.

"Certainly these breaches are already very actively policed," she said.

"What this decision says is that police aren't able to come into our own homes to check whether or not people are intoxicated when they don't have any info about whether or not a domestic violence order has been breached."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/aust...-drunk/ar-BBW4RTI?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=mailsignout
 

zeker

Has No Life - Lives on TB
sorta like our new law here

the police can give you a breath test 2 hrs after you got home

and then charge you will drunk driving

waiting for the court cases
 

Bardou

Veteran Member
Ms Roy had a domestic violence order out against her, a condition of which was that she wasn't to be in the company of her partner while she was drinking.

In the early afternoon, three police officers appeared at the door of the unit that she and her partner shared and told her they "wanted to conduct a domestic violence order check".

One of the constables said he thought if Ms Roy was drunk her partner, who suffered seizures, may be in danger.

WTF kind of law is that. Now I know why they call it "Down Under "He thought" well, he needs to stop thinking. This is why cops have such a bad name and why they get shot! OH WAIT!! Easy peezy for the cops because Australians turned in their guns. We had a couple people ask DH and I if we owned guns and we told them "yes." I liked watching their expression on their faces. Only one did we get a high five from and that was from a retired cop in Australia.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
sorta like our new law here

the police can give you a breath test 2 hrs after you got home

and then charge you will drunk driving

waiting for the court cases

So you drive home completely sober. AT HOME have a couple of beers and can then get arrested for drunk driving? What idiot came up with that law? Talk about totally bogus!
 

jward

passin' thru
This almost makes sense, if her court order specifies random checks. Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time, so to speak.
 

Luddite

Veteran Member
So you drive home completely sober. AT HOME have a couple of beers and can then get arrested for drunk driving? What idiot came up with that law? Talk about totally bogus!

I imagine it was designed to charge the drunk people that get a flat or have an accident and leave the scene. Once they make it home, they can claim they started drinking AFTER arrival.
I knew a scumbag that t-boned and nearly killed Dear old Mom that way. The police couldn't charge with drunk driving. (Scumbag lost job, license and may have committed suicide later but that is a story for another thread).

It is an over-reach and it will be abused. jmo
 

zeker

Has No Life - Lives on TB
So you drive home completely sober. AT HOME have a couple of beers and can then get arrested for drunk driving? What idiot came up with that law? Talk about totally bogus!

yep.. its a new 'law'

and.. you hafta spend $ to defend yourself

while (probably) your license is suspended
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I imagine it was designed to charge the drunk people that get a flat or have an accident and leave the scene. Once they make it home, they can claim they started drinking AFTER arrival.
I knew a scumbag that t-boned and nearly killed Dear old Mom that way. The police couldn't charge with drunk driving. (Scumbag lost job, license and may have committed suicide later but that is a story for another thread).

It is an over-reach and it will be abused. jmo

NY state has a law that if you leave the scene of a personal injury accident, you are considered de facto guilty of driving while impaired.

It was passed a few years ago after a scumbag lawyer (but i repeat myself) killed a small child with his car, drove home and sobered up, and then presented himself at the police station (with his hired snake) the next morning with some sob story... and they weren't able to charge him with DWI, because there was no proof.

As far as the OP, I'm with those that say it *might* actually make sense, IF she was under some sort of probation order due to the previous domestic violence issues that prohibited alcohol use. The story is so poorly written, it's hard to say.

BUT, the fact that two judges threw the charges out makes me think this was true police/government overreach, and I'm glad to see their judiciary at least hasn't lost their minds.

Summerthyme
 
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