POLICE OBSTRUCTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 10

POLICE OBSTRUCTED.

LABOURER'S OFFENCE. BREACH COSTS HIM £5. There was a conflict of evidence in the case of Alexander Mitchell (32), labourer, charged in the Police Court to-day with wilfully obstructing Constable N. T. Davis while in the execution of his duty on Saturday. Mitchell pleaded not guilty. He was defended by Mr. George Skelton. The constable said he arrested a man in Great North Road about 5 p.m. on Saturday on a charge of being in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor car. "A big ■crowd had collected," said the constable, "and I was trying to persuade the man to leave the motor van. His companion, Mitchell, kept clawing and pulling at me when I was. trying to get the other man from the vehicle. Later Mitchell got hold of my arm and tried to get the other man away. He was not violently obstructing me. He was under the influence of liquor, but was not drunk or as bad as his companion."

Mitchell's version of the incident was that lie merely put his hand on the constable's shoulder and asked him to go easy with the man who was being arrested because he was .a returned soldier and in ill-health. Accused considered that the constable's story was exaggerated.

However, the magistrate, Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, did not think so. In fact, he thought Mitchell went further than he admitted. While it was not a serious case of obstruction, interference of anv sort was contrary to law and might have led to trouble, placing the constable in an awkward position especially where a big crowd had collected.

Mitchell was fined £5 and was allowed one week in which to pay. The default was fixed at 14 days.