The Passport Act charge carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment or a $15,000 fine.
The officer has pleaded not guilty to the seven charges and elected trial by jury.
The accused appeared in the Rotorua District Court on September 5 for a name suppression hearing.
Defence lawyer Rachel Adams asked for suppression of her client’s name under section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The Crown, represented by Erin Riley, was neutral about the application and NZME opposed it.
Judge Greg Hollister-Jones said the allegations arose while the accused was working as a serving police officer. The officer had been stood down pending the outcome of the court case.
He said the allegations were serious.
He said Adams submitted the accused’s position within the New Zealand police would be “irrecoverable”, namely because those they dealt with would always “distrust” them, “despite any subsequent finding of not guilty”.
Judge Hollister-Jones said this was one of the rare cases where there would be extreme hardship to the accused if publication of the allegations were made.
He said they were “so serious and so fundamentally connected” to the defendant’s work as a police officer that there would be extreme hardship.
“I accept there would be some irrecoverable dimension to [their] professional reputation if there were pre-trial publicity.”
He said he granted the application for the interim suppression of the accused’s name.
Hollister-Jones subsequently made a further order suppressing the place of the alleged offending and certain details relating to the defendant’s police career.
The case was set to be recalled in the Rotorua District Court for a case review hearing next month.
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.
