Heather Gleason-Beard

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Charge:	Assault (Misdemeanor)
Sentence:	"100 hrs community service & NZL$5,000 reparations"
Years Imprisoned:
Year Crime:	2017
Year Convicted:	2018
Year Cleared:	2018
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	New Zealand
County or Region of Crime:
City of Crime:	Queenstown
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Heather Gleason-Beard was wrongly convicted on March 21, 2018 of the misdemeanor of injuring a person with reckless disregard in Queenstown, New Zealand. Gleason-Beard was a Canadian tourist and her prosecution was based on her throwing a drink on a man in a bar on July 9, 2017. She cut the man's lip with the glass. She pled guilt and was sentenced to 100 hours' community work and ordered to pay NZL$5,000 reparation. She appealed arguing the judge pressured her into pleading guilty on the morning of her scheduled trial when she had a viable defense. On September 6, 2018 the New Zealand Court of Appeal reversed her conviction and ordered her acquittal. The Court's ruling stated: "The point is that Ms Gleason-Beard received a conviction for injuring with reckless disregard where she had a defence of substance and entered a guilty plea in circumstances where the Judge’s intervention made her position and that of her counsel untenable. This constitutes a miscarriage of justice. ... For the reasons given, the appeal is allowed and Ms Gleason-Beard’s conviction for injuring with reckless disregard is quashed." Gleason-Beard had performed the 100 hours of community work and paid the $5,000 to the man."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:
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Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Female
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	Gleason-Beard v R [2018] NZCA 349 (6 September 2018)
Information Location 1:	http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZCA/2018/349.html
Information Source 2:	"Conviction quashed on appeal; judge ‘overstepped’, By Paul Taylor, Otago Daily Times, September 8, 2018"
Information Location 2:	https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/conviction-quashed-appeal-judge-%E2%80%98overstepped%E2%80%99
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Heather Gleason-Beard

Charge:

Assault (Misdemeanor)

Sentence:

"100 hrs community service & NZL$5,000 reparations"

Years Imprisoned:

Year Crime:

2017

Year Convicted:

2018

Year Cleared:

2018

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

New Zealand

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Queenstown

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Female

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

Gleason-Beard v R [2018] NZCA 349 (6 September 2018)

Information Location 1:

http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZCA/2018/349.html

Information Source 2:

"Conviction quashed on appeal; judge ‘overstepped’, By Paul Taylor, Otago Daily Times, September 8, 2018"

Information Location 2:

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/conviction-quashed-appeal-judge-%E2%80%98overstepped%E2%80%99

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Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

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