Neil Sands
A Judicial Conduct Panel set up to examine allegations about District Court Judge Ema Aitken’s behaviour at the Northern Club will hold its first public hearing on Monday to deal with procedural matters.
The panel will hold an interlocutory hearing at the Old Government Buildings in Wellington from 10am Monday to consider an application from Aitken’s lawyers.
The nature of the application has not been revealed. The panel has set aside two days for the hearing but does not expect it to go for that long.
The substantive hearing into Aitken’s conduct, which will ultimately decide whether she should be removed from the bench, will not be heard until next year in Auckland, with two weeks reserved on February 9-13 and 16-20.
Judge Ema Aitken
Aitken is accused of disrupting a New Zealand First function involving the-then Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters at Auckland’s exclusive Northern Club last November, loudly accusing him of lying and trying to barge her way into the event.
Aitken concedes there was an exchange of views with some attendees at the function but rejects claims that her conduct was threatening or aggressive.
The three-person panel – comprising retired Court of Appeal Judge Brendan Brown KC, former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Justice Jillian Mallon of the Court of Appeal – aims to present a recommendation on Aitken’s future to Acting Attorney-General Paul Goldsmith by early April.
No judge has ever been removed from the bench as a result of a JCC panel investigation.
Details of the alleged fracas were aired in the High Court in March, when Aitken unsuccessfully challenged the decision to appoint a panel to investigate her conduct.
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