Accused drug dealer pleads for time with family

A 40-year-old Kaitaia man begged for bail after his lawyer unsuccessfully argued for his release from the Kaitaia District Court.
Owen Nicholas Riley's hands had to be prised from the door leading from the dock to the cells, as family members, including children, wept.
Riley, who had been granted in bail in the Manukau District Court  last week, was remanded in custody to appear in Kaitaia on  Wednesday on charges of possessing cannabis for supply and breaching bail. His wife and alleged co-offender, 32-year-old unemployed Tuhi Moana Porter, who faces the same charges, was bailed to the same date.
The couple was initially arrested in Auckland when police attended a domestic incident. They searched a vehicle, seizing what was reported as a substantial quantity of cannabis, stolen property, weapons including a stun gun and $242,000 in cash.
Police in Kaitaia subsequently searched  their home, seizing cannabis with a police-estimated street value of $35,000.
Riley had pleaded with the court to release him, saying his family and children needed him.
Defence lawyer Ken Bailey told the court Riley
 had breached his bail, which included a condition that he not contact his wife or go to their home,  after she phoned him to say that one of their children was seriously ill and having difficulty breathing.
"She panicked and phoned him and he went to help," Mr Bailey said. The child had been taken to Kaitaia Hospital and placed on a ventilator.
Those circumstances, he added, would not normally warrant a remand in custody.
Nor would the fresh charge of possessing cannabis for supply, given that the cannabis had already been at the couple's home when police searched  a week earlier. Riley had given no thought to the cannabis, assuming that the police had found and removed it.
Sergeant Anaru Roberts told the court that the police did not accept that the cannabis had been left after the first warrant.

 Riley had been granted bail in Auckland on May 31 on charges of possessing cannabis for supply, possession of a restricted weapon and possession of an offensive weapon.
"Police opposed bail in Manukau and we oppose it again," he said.

 Mr Bailey also represented Porter, who was sobbing as she entered the dock from the cells.
Mr Bailey said if Porter was remanded in custody the couple's children would have lost both their parents, and the whole family would be at "some risk".
Sergeant Roberts countered that it would not be proper for Porter to be at home with her children. There was little difference between her and Riley, he said.