Top cop refuses breath test

Like everyone, he is entitled to, say lawyers

One of the country's top police officers has been cleared of wrongdoing for refusing to take a breath test after he was reported driving home erratically from a police bar.

Police say the man was "entitled" to refuse to comply with officers who knocked on his door.

Superintendent Graham Thomas, the head of police prosecutions at Police National Headquarters, has been cleared by a police investigation and is now on six months' paid "medical rehabilitation".

Criminal lawyers say everyone has a right to act within their legal rights. But many members of the public are convicted after being breathalysed in their homes, either because they believed they had to follow police demands or because they felt they should front up to their wrongdoing.

Some police spoken to by The Dominion Post said the officer, who is in charge of every drink-driving case in the country, ought to have fronted up.

Mr Thomas was reportedly visited after a member of the public reported erratic driving on a Friday night in December. A community patrol car went to his house and officers knocked on his door.

Police human resources manager Wayne Annan said the man, whom he would not identify, was asked to give a breath test at his home, but he declined "as he was entitled to do".

He reportedly told officers he had been home all night. Mr Thomas was not home when The Dominion Post visited yesterday, but a police-issue car was parked in his driveway. Police would not say if it was being driven on the night in question.

Mr Annan said police had completed the investigation and employment matters were concluded.

Drink-drive lawyer Chris Reid said that, although many members of the public had been convicted in similar circumstances, Mr Thomas was acting within the law.

"Morally, he should probably have done it, but legally, he didn't have to," Mr Reid said. "There's no doubt if someone knocked on my door and asked me to do a breath test, I would tell them to go to hell."

Lawyer Michael Bott said clients had been arrested for failing to provide a sample when police arrived at their house. "What concerns me is the double standard." But anyone who knew the law was entitled to apply it.

A spokesman for Police Minister Judith Collins said she would not comment on an employment issue.

Former police commissioner Peter Doone resigned in 2000 after controversy over whether he abused his power by getting out of a car and speaking to a rookie constable who stopped it on election night 1999. The car was being driven by his partner Robyn Johnstone after it was seen driving without headlights on, but the couple were allowed to drive away without being breath-tested.

A report by deputy commissioner Rob Robinson said Mr Doone should have insisted on "the full treatment for the driver to dispel any later suggestions of insobriety".

The State Services Commission last year cleared Commissioner Howard Broad of claims he avoided a breath test in 1992. When stopped, Mr Broad admitted he had been drinking with a meal and the officer told him to park and stop driving.

- © Fairfax NZ News