In today's headlines with Wilhelmina Shrimpton, former Green MP Darleen Tana heads to court, concerns over Health NZ job cuts and Paralympics under way in Paris.
Paula Toleafoa has served 10 months’ home detention for laundering more than $430,000 drug money but now, nearly three years since a jury found her guilty, she’s asking the Court of Appeal to quash her 59 convictions.
Toleafoa, who was this year crowned Miss Bay of Plenty in the href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/miss-rotorua-2024-simrandeep-kaur-takes-winning-crown/7JQXZRQLDZEOHPYRHD3IFF4YVU/" target="_blank">Miss Rotorua beauty pageant under the name Diamond Te Kiri, was sentenced in April 2022 after a jury in 2021 found her guilty of 59 out of 69 charges she faced.
The 50-year-old has always denied she knew her husband, Luther Toleafoa, was a drug dealer or that the money he was giving her was the profits of selling methamphetamine.
Now that argument has formed the basis of her appeal.
She told the trial jury she thought the thousands she was spending was money he had legitimately earned from his house-washing business or from buying and selling cars.
Luther Toleafoa was jailed in December 2021 for 11 years after he was found guilty at his trial that year of a raft of serious drug dealing offences, including money laundering charges relating to $460,000.
Despite his denials at his trial, the patched Head Hunters gang member admitted for the first time at sentencing he had been dealing drugs.
Paula Toleafoa during her trial in 2021. Photo / Andrew Warner
The Toleafoas, who lived mainly in Auckland, would travel to Rotorua and stay in hotels where Luther Toleafoa would sell large amounts of drugs he had obtained through his Head Hunters gang connections.
The Crown proved at Paula Toleafoa’s trial she would then deposit large amounts of cash in money machines or at banks into the couple’s 31 personal and business accounts.
Toleafoa told the jury she was a victim of domestic violence and abusive phone calls from Luther Toleafoa were played to the jury during the trial. She claimed if she knew he was selling drugs, she would have left him.
But at her trial, Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy produced proof from Paula Toleafoa’s personal and business Facebook pages, the latter being for Ruff Diamonds NZ, that indicated the pair were still together despite her husband having admitted dealing at his sentencing.
During the trial, the Crown proved the couple were “living it up”.
She drove a Chrysler 300C and he drove a Hummer. They had two Harley-Davidsons and “a number of” Range Rovers.
The trial heard Toleafoa always dealt in cash and spent $196,000 in cash on shopping sprees. The Crown produced evidence she spent $10,000 in cash buying a property management business, about $23,000 buying holidays overseas and $24,000 on hotel bookings.
Paula Toleafoa entered Miss Rotorua this year as Diamond Te Kiri and was crowned Miss Bay of Plenty. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tuesday’s appeal was heard in the Court of Appeal in Auckland before Justices Matthew Palmer, Christian Whata and Mathew Downs. It was allowed to proceed despite being outside the appeal period.
Toleafoa’s lawyer, Hunter de Groot, said the appeal was separated into three arguments – the reasonableness of the verdicts, the lack of directions given to the jury and a legal argument about laundering.
He said the crux of the Crown case was that Toleafoa knew her husband was a drug dealer, but there was no evidence to support that.
He said usually there were phone calls or text messages that indicated someone was involved.
He said there was not enough evidence presented by the Crown to prove she knew where the money came from.
“The fact that the jury returned guilty verdicts based on the case they were asked to decide [that she knew he was dealing drugs] – in our submission something fundamental has gone wrong.”
He said even when police searched the couple’s Frank St home and found nine ounces of methamphetamine, there was no evidence to prove Toleafoa knew it was there.
De Groot said Toleafoa was mainly living in Auckland at that time and two ounces were found hidden in a car outside and the other seven ounces were found in a bedroom inside luggage that contained men’s clothing.
The justices questioned De Groot about whether Toleafoa could have drawn an inference her husband was dealing in methamphetamine given the large amounts of cash that was being made.
Paula Toleafoa was sentenced in April 2022 to 10 months' home detention for laundering more than $430,000 in drug profits. Photo / Andrew Warner
They pointed out there was no evidence to prove the house-washing business was legitimate.
“That is a logical inference to draw of knowledge, I would have thought,” Justice Whata said.
“We are not talking about one or two transactions, we are talking about a large number of cash transactions with her hand and fingerprints all over those transactions ... and so many transactions, 500 of them.”
De Groot said he was not suggesting Luther Toleafoa’s house-washing business was run correctly and paying tax.
Crown Solicitor Amanda Gordon reminded the justices that Paula Toleafoa was not charged with laundering for everything she spent the cash on, including everyday living expenses. She said it was Toleafoa’s own evidence she never used an eftpos card or credit card for months because everything she bought was in cash.
The justices reserved their decision.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
