Former Buller deputy mayor Sharon Roche. Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
"I distinctly remember his fist and the rage in his eyes... I genuinely believed Frank was going to hit me."
That's how former Buller deputy mayor, Sharon Roche, described her altercation with local accountant, Frank Dooley, to the Westport District Court.
Dooley, who is currently a West Coast Regional councillor and Buller Electricity chief executive, is suing Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine for defamation.
The case centres on Cleine's claim Dooley raised his fist to Roche at a Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) public meeting in Westport in February 2022.
Roche attended the meeting as deputy mayor and a TTPP committee member.
She told the court Cleine had asked attendees to hold their questions until after the TTPP planners' presentation.
Dooley had asked a question, the planner had responded and continued her presentation, she said.
Dooley asked another question in a more aggressive tone.
"I recall that he was quite worked up about aspects of the TTPP, particularly the hazard overlays," Roche said. "He was clearly trying to make a point."
Roche said she politely asked Mr Dooley to hold his questions to the end. Dooley then stood up and launched a "tirade of abuse" at her.
"Shouting things like 'don't f***king interrupt me, you can't f***king tell me what to do. I'll f***king have my say if I f***king want to'."
Dooley repeatedly pointed his finger at her and she felt intimidated, Roche said.
She stood up and told Dooley his behaviour was unacceptable and she didn't deserve to be spoken to like that.
She denied advancing on Dooley. "I did not move far, if at all, from my chair."
Roche said Dooley's expletives continued and he came within about a foot of her.
"He puffed up his chest as if to make himself look bigger. He raised his right fist to me."
She said he did not wave his open hand at her, as he had claimed.
"I distinctly remember his fist and the rage in his eyes... I genuinely believed Frank was going to hit me."
Roche said Dooley then seemed to realise he had gone too far and lowered his arm.
Another meeting attendee, Di Rossiter, approached Dooley and told him to leave. He didn't.
Roche said Di and Phil Rossiter left the TTPP meeting and she followed. The Rossiters stayed with her while she composed herself. Then, she went back inside.
Roche said Dooley's subsequent apology to the meeting, and his emailed apology the next day, were not genuine.
"Even now I have not received a heartfelt apology from Frank."
After the meeting, people checked on her and she checked on the planners, she said. Dooley left.
Roche said Dooley wore his emotions on his sleeve.
"I've heard him swear frequently. The f-word is just part of his vocabulary. However, what I experienced was entirely different. This was rage-filled."
Roche said she had discussed the altercation with her husband Brent Oldham and the then Buller District Council chief executive Sharon Mason. She had also jotted down a map of the Clocktower Chambers meeting room and where attendees had been sitting.
Roche said she had made a statement to police who initially charged Dooley with intimidation. Police later dropped the charge, gave Dooley a formal warning for using obscene language in a public place, and trespassed him from council premises for two years.
Roche's official victim impact statement has been submitted as evidence, but has been suppressed, as have parts of her brief of evidence.
Dooley's lawyer Robert Stewart KC challenged Roche's version of events. Roche maintained she was correct.
Stewart asked whether the witnesses who had maintained Dooley did not raise his fist had had a clear line of sight.
Roche said nothing was in the way, but they would not have had a clear view of Dooley.
"They were behind Frank, all of them. I was the one directly in front. This was being directed at me. They couldn't see his rage-filled eyes."
Asked to demonstrate Dooley's action, she pointed then raised her right fist.
She denied she could have been in shock and confused. She also reiterated Dooley had moved towards her, rather than she towards him.
Stewart asked Roche what she thought of Dooley's public apology in court earlier this week. She said it was a statement to the court, not an apology.
The court had previously been told Roche had known Dooley since she was 16. They had worked together in an accountancy firm, then she had worked for him for 18 years at his own accountancy firm.
She had also served as a Buller Electricity director while Dooley was on the board.