Non Raceday Inquiry RIU v R P Liefting 26 February 2013 – Decision dated 4 March 2013

hearingid: c61800b9949846cdedb94a1409cccabf

informantnumber: A2213

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decisiondate: 10/03/2013

hearing_title: Non Raceday Inquiry RIU v R P Liefting 26 February 2013 - Decision dated 4 March 2013

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appealdecision: NO LINKED APPEAL DECISION

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Decision:

NON RACEDAY INQUIRY BEFORE THE JUDICIAL CONTROL AUTHORITY

Non Race Day Judicial Committee:

Mr Richard Seabrook - Chair

Mr Alan Godsalve – Committee Member

VENUE: Ellerslie Racecourse

DATE: 26 February 2013

INFORMATION NUMBER: A2213

INFORMANT:

Racing Integrity Unit - Mr Bryan Oliver, Assistant Investigator

RESPONDENT:

Mr Rudy Phillip Liefting - Licensed Racehorse Trainer

REGISTRAR:

Mr M Williamson – Racing Integrity Unit

PERSONS PRESENT who were called during the hearing:

Mrs Linda Campbell, Licensed Trainer, Complainant

Ms Amy Trafford, Licensed Stablehand

Mr Rudy Phillip Liefting, Licensed Trainer, Respondent

Mrs Megan Liefting, assisting Mr Liefting

Mr Peter Laveau, Licensed Stablehand

Mr Rod Carmichael, Racing Integrity Unit, Senior Investigator

RULE: Rule 340 ‘Misconduct’

This Rule reads as follows:

“A Licensed Person, Owner, Lessee, Racing Manager, Official or other person bound by these Rules must not misconduct himself in any matter relating to the conduct of Races or racing”

PLEA: Denied

EVIDENCE:

The Chairman read the charge to Mr Liefting as follows:

“On the 8th day of November 2012, at Ellerslie Racecourse, during the course of a Trials meeting, Rudy Phillip Liefting, being a Licensed Person, committed a breach of Rule 340 of the New Zealand Rules of Racing, in that you used obscene and foul language and acted in an aggressive and threatening manner towards Linda Campbell and another; and that you are therefore liable to the penalty or penalties that may be imposed upon you pursuant to Rule 803(1) of the said Rules.

Mr Liefting was then asked to make a plea to the charge, to which he replied that he was ‘guilty‘ of having had an argument but that he denied breaching the Rule as per the charge.

SUBMISSIONS by Mr B Oliver:

Mr Oliver was asked to present his case, and called his first witness, Senior Investigator Mr R. Carmichael.

Mr Carmichael produced a statement which was a transcript of an interview he had with Mr Liefting on Sunday 24 November 2012 at Te Rapa. Mr Carmichael read that transcript to the hearing at this time as he was required at another venue.

Neither Mr Liefting nor Mr Oliver had any questions of Mr Carmichael. As an aside, Mr Carmichael stated that he had found Mr Liefting ‘reasonable and stable’ on the day of the interview.

At this time Mr Oliver produced the following documents:

Exhibit 1 - Copy of Rudy Phillip Liefting’s License history

Exhibit 2 - Copy of Linda Kathleen Campbell’s License history

Exhibit 3 - Copy of Amy Trafford’s License history

Exhibit 4 - Copy of Transcript of interview of Rudy Liefting

Exhibit 5 - Authority to lodge an Information

Exhibit 6 - Copy of Information A2213

Exhibit 7 - Receipt for disclosure signed by Megan Liefting

Exhibit 8 - Copy of Rudy Phillip Liefting’s Offence Listing

Mr Oliver then introduced the complainant, Mrs Linda Campbell.

Mrs Campbell told the hearing that she had attended a trials meeting at Ellerslie on the day in question. She said that she had brought two horses, geldings, to the trials. One of these horses was to trial, the other was bought to the racecourse as a companion and also to gain experience. She said there was a shortage of stalls in the tie-up area. Her assistant, Amy Trafford was left in charge of her two horses which were side-by-side in the stalls. On her return to the area she found that there was a filly in one of her stalls. She asked Mrs Megan Liefting, who was in charge of the horse, to move it. A short time later Mr Rudy Liefting arrived. An argument followed, whereby Mrs Campbell stated that Mr Liefting had ‘cornered’ her in the horse stall and shouted obscenities at her. She said that she had been scared and upset. She stated that Mr Liefting had called her ‘nothing but a dirty old moll’ and had used the words ‘f***’ and ‘c***’ to her. She said that she was sure that these words were directed at her. She added that she had responded to Mr Liefting that she ‘had better things to do’. She added that she had felt physically threatened by Mr Liefting’s behaviour. Her horse became panicky due to the noise and she felt it could have hurt her or someone else. In reply to a question from Mr Liefting, Mrs Campbell said that while there were other people in the proximity she could not explain why nobody else had stepped in to stop this argument. She stated that she had later telephoned (Stipendiary Steward) Mathew Williamson about the incident, who told her to contact Mr Oliver as it was a matter he should deal with.

Mr Oliver then called Amy Trafford to give her evidence.

Ms Trafford said that she had worked for Mrs Campbell for several weeks, although she had a number of years experience working with horses. She said that she was left in charge of their two horses while Mrs Campbell went to the office. She said that Megan Liefting had put a filly in one of their stalls while their horse was out trialling. When Mrs Campbell had returned she had asked Mrs Liefting to move the horse. Mr Liefting was by then present and she saw him physically threaten Mrs Campbell and block her way out of the tie up stall. She said she asked Mr Liefting to move and he had said ‘who the f*** are you’ to her, and added ‘it’s nothing to do with you, you bitch’. She said Mr Liefting had refused to get out of Mrs Campbell’s way and had yelled ‘you can stay out of this you f***ing c*** of a thing’ at her. She told the hearing she had never been treated like that and felt that Mr Liefting was ‘out of control’ and screaming. She said that Mrs Campbell had not retaliated. In reply to a question from Mr Liefting, Ms Trafford said that she had grabbed his arm to try to get him away from Mrs Campbell, and that she had told him not to talk to her ‘like that’. She further stated that Mrs Campbell’s horse had been upset by the noise and that she was concerned Mrs Campbell was going to be injured by the horse before she could get out of its way.

This concluded the evidence for the Informant.

RESPONDENT

Mr Rudy Liefting gave evidence on his own behalf. The transcript of his verbal interview with Mr Carmichael had previously been read to the hearing, and Mr Liefting’s evidence generally speaking followed that interview.

Mr Liefting said that on the day in question his wife had taken one (colt) to the trials and he and his employee, Peter Laveau followed in another vehicle later with a further 4 horses. According to Mr Liefting, his wife had told him that she had ‘saved’ 4 stalls for him when he arrived. He told the hearing that on arriving at Ellerslie he was told by his wife that Mrs Campbell had taken the stalls she had been saving. Mrs Campbell had apparently told his wife that they could use the stalls she had her horses in after they left.

As a matter of fact the Committee members are aware that in circumstances such as this it is a matter of ‘first in-first served’ as stalls are usually in short supply on trials days.

SUBMISSIONS by Mr R Liefting:

Mr Liefting’s evidence was that as a result of a conversation between Mrs Campbell and another trainer, Mr Tiley, one of the stalls Mrs Campbell had been using was given to Mr Tiley. Mr Liefting said he had asked Mrs Campbell if she had intentionally done that, to which she had replied ‘yes’.

Mr Liefting stated that shortly after that, as Mrs Campbell had been preparing to leave with her horses, he had approached her. She had been standing at the rear of her horse in the stall. He said he had asked her what his wife had said to her to upset her. He said he was standing at the front of the horse at that time. According to Mr Liefting, Mrs Campbell unclipped the leads on her horse and walked towards him and said words to the effect of “f*** off Rudy I don’t need your shit”. Mr Liefting acknowledged that he had told her to “get stuffed then”, at which time Ms Trafford had said to him “don’t speak to her like that”. He had replied “It’s none of your business, keep out of it”.

Mr Liefting stated that he was curious that if an altercation had taken place as alleged then why was it that no-one else had seen it? He said there were conflicting stories and the incident had been ‘blown out of all proportion”. In response to a question from the Committee, Mr Liefting said he denied ‘standing over’ Mrs Campbell and that the allegation was a ‘fabrication’.

Mr Oliver asked Mr Liefting why he had not told Mr Carmichael in his interview on 24 November that Mrs Campbell had said “f*** off Rudy” to him. He replied that it wasn’t until several weeks after the incident that Mr Laveau had refreshed his memory about what was said.

Mr Oliver asked Mr Liefting if he had said in his verbal interview that neither his wife nor Mr Laveau was present at the time of the alleged incident. Mr Liefting agreed that he had said that at that time.

Mr Liefting then introduced his witness, Mr Peter Laveau.

Mr Laveau said that he had been in the stalls area oiling a horse’s feet when he heard an argument. He said that he heard a woman say “don’t give me any of your f***ing shit”.

When asked if that was Mrs Campbell he replied that it was a ‘blond’ woman. He added that he ‘didn’t like female trainers’.

In reply to a question from Mr Liefting Mr Laveau stated that he didn’t think Mr Liefting knew he was present at the time the altercation took place.

Mr Laveau responded to questions from Mr Oliver by stating he was about ‘5 stalls’ away at the time, and that he remembered what Mrs Campbell had said because he didn’t like women using the ‘f’ word. He added that Mrs Campbell’s ‘girl’ had asked him to move their horse and that there were other people in the immediate vicinity but he didn’t know who they were.

In Summary Mr Liefting said that there had been ‘plenty of time’ for Mr Oliver to find other witnesses to the alleged incident but nobody ‘neutral’ had been located. He agreed that there had been an argument, and felt that if he ended up being charged, so should Mrs Campbell.

SUMMARY by Mr B Oliver

Summarising for the Informant, Mr Oliver stated that the charge related to an incident at the ‘tie-ups’ and that behaviour was the issue. Obscene language and threatening behaviour is a breach of the Rules.

REASONS FOR DECISION:

The Committee has carefully considered all of the evidence placed before it. We have had an opportunity to assess the credibility of the witnesses who appeared before us today.

We have to place strong emphasis on the fact that Mrs Campbell had felt strongly enough about the behaviour complained of that she had made early contact with a Stipendiary Steward and then a member of the Racing Integrity Investigation unit. We take into her account her consistency in pursuing this complaint. We also take into account the evidence of Ms Trafford who was clear and concise in her testimony about what she had seen and heard at the time of this incident. We were impressed with her demeanour and we accept Ms Trafford’s version as being the only person present who could be called ‘neutral’ even though she worked for Mrs Campbell. Of particular note is that Mr Liefting neglected to say anything about Mrs Campbell’s alleged use of offensive language when initially interviewed by Mr Carmichael, and that he had told Mr Carmichael initially that neither his wife or Mr Laveau were present at the time of the incident. This does not correspond with evidence given before us today.

DECISION:

For the reasons given above we find that the Informant has established the ingredients of the charge and we find that the charge against Rudy Phillip Liefting is proved.

PENALTY SUBMISSIONS:

Mr Oliver submitted that Mr Liefting had a clear record and had been a license holder for approximately 30 years. He told the Committee that the matter could be dealt with by way of a monetary penalty.

Mr Oliver referred to the case of “W” who had been fined $3000 plus costs for a breach of this Rule.

He said that Mr Liefting had neglected his responsibility in regards to appropriate behaviour and asked that the penalty should be a fine of $3000, plus an order for JCA costs of $1330.

In response Mr Liefting stated that he knew of an offence by a trainer who had abused a jockey in front of a Stipendiary Steward and had ‘only’ been fined $300. He felt that a fine in that vicinity would be sufficient.

sumissionsforpenalty:

reasonsforpenalty:

penalty:

Before imposing an appropriate penalty the Committee has referred to other charges under Rule 340 and the facts surrounding those charges. These have been taken into consideration during our deliberation.

This Committee, having found the charge proved, considers that a monetary penalty would be appropriate.

The fine must be meaningful given the circumstances. However on a scale of seriousness we believe this matter falls towards the lower end. Mr Liefting has no previous history of any breaches of the Rules and that is to his credit given the length of time he has been engaged in the racing industry.

The Committee understands the frustrations which occur frequently on a racecourse when young and sometimes inexperienced horses are involved and we accept that there may have been circumstances which caused Mr Liefting to become upset, however that does not excuse his behaviour towards the complainant.

According we impose a fine of $750, and make an order that Mr Liefting will pay costs of $750 to the JCA.

R Seabrook                            A Godsalve
Chair                                     Committee Member
 

4 March 2013

hearing_type: Non-race day

Rules: 340 'Misconduct'

Informant: Mr Bryan Oliver - Assistant Investigator - Racing Integrity Unit

JockeysandTrainer:

Otherperson:

PersonPresent: Mrs Linda Campbell - Licensed Trainer - Complainant, Ms Amy Trafford - Licensed Stablehand, Mr Rudy Phillip Liefting - Licensed Trainer - Respondent, Mrs Megan Liefting - assisting Mr Liefting, Mr Peter Laveau - Licensed Stablehand, Mr Rod Carmichael - Senior Investigator - Racing Integrity Unit

Respondent: Mr Rudy Phillip Liefting - Licensed Racehorse Trainer

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