A hearing of charges against ex-SFO chief prosecutor Anita Killeen, accused of forging emails to smear her former boss Adam Feeley, has been adjourned to September.
Ms Killeen, who was charged in November last year, appeared briefly in the Auckland district court today wearing a smart green jacket.
Queen's counsel Paul Davison agreed to the indictment against her being amended.
Ms Killeen, an Auckland barrister, originally faced four charges under the Crimes Act relating to accessing the SFO’s computer systems, modifying an email and distributing the modified email to newsrooms at the National Business Review and the New Zealand Herald.
The charges allege Ms Killeen – who was earlier remanded at large and required to surrender her passport – created a forged email, purporting to be from SFO director Adam Feeley, and intended for it to be acted on as if genuine.
Mr Feeley, who yesterday quit the SFO to become chief executive of Queenstown Lakes district council, earlier denied writing the email.
The fake emails were sent soon after news broke of Mr Feeley celebrating the laying of criminal charges against disgraced Bridgecorp boss Rod Petricevic by drinking champagne belonging to the company's directors.
That celebration, with his staff, earned Mr Feeley a reprimand from the State Services Commission and then Police Minister Judith Collins.
In February, Ms Killeen went to the High Court to try to keep information on her seized computer from the police.
Two forensic searches of Ms Killeen's computers failed to find evidence of the faked email, it was reported last month – but at that stage police had not tried to recover documents from web-based email systems.
Ms Killeen, who insiders say was on a meteoric rise up the legal pole, was made redundant amidst restructuring at the SFO in 2010 and moved to City Chambers.
According to the New Zealand Law Society website, she now works for herself.
David Williams
Tue, 31 Jul 2012
Tue, 31 Jul 2012
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Feeley forgery furore – court latest
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