As he worked on the car, Cooper drove down the street, veering too close to the left-hand side, striking the victim and sending him catapulting into the air. <\/p>\n
The court heard Cooper sped off after the crash, failing to check on the victim, whom he knew. The van was never seen again. <\/p>\n
Police issued a photo asking for CCTV or dashcam footage of the red van linked to the Miramar incident. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The pair are related, although the court heard they don\u2019t like each other, something Judge Peter Hobbs asked counsel about, saying he couldn\u2019t ignore their relationship. <\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop told the court video footage of the crash showed the van making a deliberate swerve towards the car, but it couldn\u2019t be said it was intentional, just that the van swerved dangerously, she said. <\/p>\n
But she submitted there was \u201can incredible coincidence\u201d that someone known to the victim drove in his direction. <\/p>\n
Cooper\u2019s lawyer, Elizabeth Hall, took issue with that, submitting there was \u201cno evidence available\u201d that Cooper knew the man was on the street that night, pointing out the car the victim was repairing wasn\u2019t parked outside his house, workplace or any address that was associated with him. <\/p>\n
\u2018Today is not about you, Michael Cooper\u2019<\/p>\n
Emotional victim impact statements read to the court described the man\u2019s lengthy rehabilitation after waking in intensive care, unable to recognise his own son. <\/p>\n
His family explained that before the crash, the man had a way with words, but he now struggles to communicate, often mixing his words, and is unable to fully express himself.<\/p>\n
His sister told the court her brother\u2019s life was now a daily struggle to concentrate, as his memory, movement and independence had been permanently scarred. <\/p>\n
She said that for 1071 days the family had lived under the weight of trauma, grief and injustice. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday is not about you, Michael Cooper, and how you chose to perceive your actions; it is about us and healing, about speaking truth into this space.\u201d <\/p>\n
But she said in the depths of trauma and grief, the family had found strength, and the incident had drawn them closer together.<\/p>\n
In sentencing Cooper, Judge Hobbs thanked the family for their eloquent statements, saying they had demonstrated mana in the way they spoke and hadn\u2019t tried to belittle Cooper or speak to him inappropriately.<\/p>\n
The judge acknowledged that Cooper had originally faced a more serious charge, but on the morning of his trial, the charge was amended to dangerous driving causing injury, which Cooper had pleaded guilty to. <\/p>\n
The Crown sought a starting point of two and a half years\u2019 jail, while the defence submitted that a year\u2019s imprisonment was a more appropriate starting point. <\/p>\n
Judge Hobbs adopted a starting point of 22 months\u2019 jail, noting the aggravating features, including Cooper\u2019s failure to stop, his decision to dispose of the van, which the judge said spoke to his guilt, and the serious and life-changing injuries inflicted on the victim. <\/p>\n
He also acknowledged that Cooper had previous driving convictions. <\/p>\n
Hall submitted that given her client\u2019s guilty plea, coupled with the several months he\u2019d spent in custody, followed by a lengthy period on electronically monitored bail \u2013 during which he was unable to drive \u2013 the judge should impose no further sentence. <\/p>\n
She said he had already been penalised beyond what would normally be expected for the charge. <\/p>\n
But Judge Hobbs said the purposes and principles of sentencing wouldn\u2019t be achieved if there were no punitive element. <\/p>\n
He sentenced Cooper to five months\u2019 home detention and disqualified him from driving for 12 months. <\/p>\n
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael David Cooper, the driver of the red Mitsubishi van, was sentenced this week after earlier admitting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8604,35089,3549,19552,19191,104,35090,5494,111,43,139,69,1523,5161,1361,52],"class_list":["post-38263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-caused","tag-cooper","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-hitandrun","tag-injuries","tag-lifechanging","tag-michael","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-sentenced","tag-that","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263","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=38263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}