A Judicial Conduct Panel investigating the actions of a judge has been played a video of a King’s Counsel being asked to leave a New Zealand First event, with a party official claiming the respected lawyer was “entitled”, “unstable” and she feared for her safety.
“I asked him to leave,” the party’s secretary Holly Howard said today during her evidence about the alleged incident at Auckland’s exclusive Northern Club in November 2024.
She claimed Michael Reed, KC refused to leave, took photos of those gathered, and threatened to sue her and a staff member if they touched him.
Video of the incident was played to the panel, which is investigating the actions of Judge Ema Aitken on the night of November 22, 2024.
She is accused of gate-crashing an NZ First function and making an “intemperate, rude” outburst in response to a speech by the party’s leader, Winston Peters.
Reed was with Aitken on the evening in question at a separate function in another room in the Northern Club.
Howard claimed to the panel that when she asked Reed to leave the NZ First function: “He refused to do so and became hostile.”
Asked during cross-examination, in a question that appeared to be tongue-in-cheek, if she thought Reed “was weaponed up somehow”, Howard replied: “It’s possible. Political violence happens around the world we are in and we have to be careful.”
“I did not know this man from a bar of soap. He could have a significant mental health problem,” she told the panel.
When Reed entered the room, he began taking photographs, Howard said.
“Don’t touch me or I will sue you for a lot of money,” Reed is heard telling a Northern Club staff member in the video played to the panel.
”Will you tell Winston from me please that I’m upset about being a New Zealand First supporter. I’m on the mailing list," Reed continued.
He is seen dropping his phone before being escorted from the room.
“Can you be quiet,” Reed said.
“I’m not disturbing anyone.
“I didn’t say a word. Not a word. I just stood there”.
“I was just interested in seeing what was happening,” Reed said in the video.
Howard told the panel she was close enough to Reed that their shoes were touching as she attempted to direct him from the room.
“He had advanced on me to enter a private function. I had Cabinet ministers [in the room] and a man who was acting unstable,” Howard claimed.
“It was conduct I would not have expected to see inside a venue like the Northern Club. This is not Denny’s.”
Aitken’s lawyer, David Jones, KC, today accused Howard of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between a written account she gave of the incident to the Northern Club days after the event, and her formal brief of evidence.
Jones claimed some of Howard’s evidence was “rubbish” and “a fiction”.
“Ms Howard, you are just creating a different version, aren’t you?” he asked.
Howard admitted there were “errors” in her earlier account but maintained she was telling the truth.
Jones then asked whether Howard wanted to “increase focus” on the judge so NZ First could “leverage” the incident.
“We get no leverage from this,” she replied.
The hearing continues on Thursday.
Judge Aitken is the only New Zealand judge to be called before a Judicial Conduct Panel, which will prepare a report for acting Attorney-General Paul Goldsmith on whether he should consider removing Judge Aitken from office.
On Wednesday morning, Howard was the first witness to give evidence about events at the party’s fundraiser.
She said she was in a “heightened state” because protesters had disrupted previous NZ First functions.
Howard recalled seeing a woman in a yellow dress passing outside the function room door, then returning from the bathroom about three minutes later.
“She looked beautiful. She had a beautiful dress. She was stunning coming down the corridor.”
Peters was speaking into a microphone, with his voice “clearly audible”, Howard said.
There were also two NZ First banners visible in the room.
She said she “heard the woman before I saw her”.
“I heard her react to the Deputy Prime Minister and exclaim loudly, ‘He’s lying’. She was yelling,” Howard claimed.
The judge – who says she did not realise it was a political event or that the speaker was Peters – appeared to be focusing her comments at NZ First Cabinet minister Casey Costello, adding, “How can you let him say that?”
Howard said she immediately moved towards the judge and used “de-escalation training” to block Judge Aitken from entering the room and usher her away.
She said the “room full of judges” comment felt like an attempt to intimidate – “I’m trying to shut you down”.
Asked if the judge was really yelling or just speaking forcefully, Howard replied: “It’s a tone and presentation of anger. She was yelling.”
Howard said another man then appeared in the foyer, who was “loitering” outside the room for about 20 minutes.
She claimed the man accosted Peters as the veteran politician was leaving the venue, accusing him of “doing a shit job”.
Howard said she later learned the man was the judge’s husband, celebrity doctor David Galler.