Allegations of abuse by NZ Police
	peterellis Home / police allegations / Rickards, Shipton, Schollum vs Jane Doe Page 4 - Initial Reaction to Not Guilty Verdict
	The Press March 2 2007 Top officer faces uphill battle by Keri Welham and Emily Watt Suspended Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards has vowed to be back at work soon, but he faces an uphill battle winning back the support of frontline police and the public. Employment law expert Peter Cullen said Rickards, acquitted yesterday in a second police sex case alongside two former colleagues, had been "very unwise" to publicly label the investigation and prosecution effort against him a shambles. Outside court after the verdict was read, Rickards said Operation Austin was "a shambles and a poorly run operation, poorly run". The criticism was directed at members of the same police force he says he wants to return to. Rickards has been paid more than $600,000 since he was stood down three years ago, continuing to receive police perks while studying law at Auckland University. Estimated to be earning $200,000 a year, he was stood down in February 2004 – three days after the Dominion Post revealed allegations by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas. He will remain suspended while police sort through employment issues. Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope said this would take "some time", but police would move as quickly as possible. Pope said the allegations against Rickards were very serious. "The last three years have been a difficult time for everyone concerned – for the complainant, the defendant and his family and the police inquiry team." Cullen said Rickards' comments about looking forward to return ing to work as soon as possible could be seen as either putting pressure on police to have him return to his role as assistant commissioner or possibly setting the stage for negotiating an exit package. But his attack on the investigation team appeared dam aging to either approach. Cullen said that if Rickards was reinstated, the ntsaone-timenteonce high-flying Maori policing role model would find it difficult to resume his leaddh ership position within the police. Fellow police officers, and the New Zealand public, had heard details of his sexual exploits with original complainant Louise Nicholas, then a teenager, in Rotorua in the 1980s. Although he was acquitted of rape in that case in March last year, he did admit to consensual sex with Nicholas. The young police officer had a partner and two children at the time of his affair with Nicholas. Veteran lawyer Rob Moodie, who represented former senior police officer Alec Waugh in a bitter employment case, said reinstated police were traditionally ostracised on their return to the force. They were not taken into confidence by superiorsntsa and would be cut out of conversationsnte. Junior police did not have the same respect for them as they might have had before they heard details of their superior's sexual history and saw them bringing the force into disrepute. Waugh stood trial in 1998 on 21 counts of making fraudulent expense claims, including one charge involving $1.19. His convictions were quashed by the High Court in 2002 and he returned to the force in March 2004. He was paid $1 million in compensation. Two years later, as part of his agreed employment settlement, he retired. Rickards revealed yesterday that he had spent more than $500,000 defending himself on sex charges. Rickards, who holds a master's degree in public policy from Sydney's Charles Sturt University, owns an $800,000 Hawkes Bay home and has reportedly been studydhing law at Auckland Univer sity. One newspaper last year reported he was enjoying a relaxed lifestyle, exercising early most days, lifting weights at a local gym, and sometimes visiting the local Hound and Bull pub to watch a rugby game, although he did not drink. Rickards rose quickly through police ranks, from cadet aged 18 in 1979, to undercover officer within three years, to assistant com missioner and Auckland district commander.