{"id":369133,"date":"2026-04-08T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369133\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:19:08","slug":"community-magistrate-unimpressed-former-sportsman-didnt-turn-up-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369133\/","title":{"rendered":"Community magistrate unimpressed former sportsman didn\u2019t turn up to court"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, when his case was called in the district court <\/a>today, the community magistrate was unimpressed that neither the defendant nor his counsel, Matthew Smit, was in court.<\/p>\n

After the magistrate asked where they both were, a duty lawyer stood up and said he understood a plea by notice had been filed with the court.<\/p>\n

CM Cooper said she\u2019d received an affidavit confirming the defendant\u2019s not guilty plea, but she appeared unimpressed no one was in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know why the defendant is not here,\u201d she said before standing the matter down, to allow either the defendant or counsel to appear via audiovisual link.<\/p>\n

A short time later, Smit appeared via a link and explained that he and the defendant were both based outside Waikato, and he\u2019d hoped to have his client\u2019s appearance excused.<\/p>\n

He also confirmed his client pleaded not guilty to the charge.<\/p>\n

CM Cooper was satisfied with that response but told him his client would have to appear next time.<\/p>\n

She remanded the accused on strict bail conditions, including not to drink alcohol, to submit to a passive breath test by a constable when asked, and not to enter the Hamilton CBD or any licensed premises after 8pm.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe man is understood to have attended the Homegrown music festival on Saturday, March 14. Photo \/ Rakhal Heijtel<\/p>\n

She also continued his interim name suppression but told Smit that if he wanted permanent suppression, he should file the required paperwork with the court.<\/p>\n

The sportsman was remanded on bail, on the charge of intentionally obstructing a police constable acting in the execution of his duty, to appear in court again in August.<\/p>\n

The charge he faces carries a maximum penalty of three months\u2019 imprisonment and a $2000 fine.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, when his case was called in the district court today, the community magistrate was unimpressed that neither…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1259,1349,17898,2740,153282,111,43,139,69,6792,61,664,13794,810],"class_list":["post-369133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-community","tag-court","tag-didnt","tag-former","tag-magistrate","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sportsman","tag-to","tag-turn","tag-unimpressed","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}