John Cousins reports:
A Crown prosecutor said there needed to be an “air of reality” around a Bay man’s claim that a St John Ambulance officer breached his privacy by revealing his cannabis use to police.
Prosecutor Richard Jenson was responding to an appeal against the decision by a community magistrate not to allow Cory Alexander Urlich to withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of driving while impaired.
Urlich, 19, was the driver of a car involved in a crash at the intersection of Welcome Bay Rd and James Cook Drive on April 15 last year. He pleaded guilty in December.
Read more on Bay of Plenty Times.
So it seems an “air of reality” is New Zealand prosecutor-speak for getting around medical privacy protections? From what’s presented in the news report, the circumstances do not seem to warrant medical personnel disclosing that information to law enforcement. And without that disclosure, it sounds like they would likely have not seen justification/cause for a drug impairment test.