District Court Judge Ema Aitken is before a Judicial Conduct panel over allegations she yelled at party leader Winston Peters, calling him a liar, and saying comments he made were disgusting, during an event at Auckland's Northern Club in 2024.
The judge said she did not shout, did not recognise Peters' voice when she responded to remarks she overheard, and did not know it was a political event.
The Judicial Conduct Panel was responsible for reporting on the judge's conduct, finding the facts, and ultimately recommending if the judge should be removed.
On Wednesday, the panel heard from NZ First party secretary and deputy chief of staff Holly Howard, who provided details on the night in question and who allegedly blocked the judge from entering the event.
Later in the afternoon, panellists heard evidence from Dorothy Jones, an NZ First board member and the person who organised the event.
She spoke not only about the disruption not just of a "woman in yellow" yelling, but also that of Auckland lawyer Michael Reed KC.
In a video played to the panel, Reed can be seen trying to film inside the NZ First event, despite being told numerous times it was not allowed to.
At one point in the video, Reed cautions those trying to stop him they shouldn't touch him, else they "be sued for a lot of money".
Jones rang the Northern Club the following day to report the disturbances of the night prior.
"Primarily, it was in relation to Mr Reed wasn't it [...] because you understood him to be a litigious man," asked Aitken's lawyer David Jones KC.
"Hostile," Dorothy Jones replied.
Aitken's lawyer asked if Reed was the main concern for the party over what had happened that evening.
"Correct," Jones replied.
Jones also recalled seeing a woman at the door of the event, yelling.
"I recalled the woman yelled words to the effect that the speaker was a liar, 'how could you let him lie,'" she said.
"At this point Holly and I managed to escort the woman away from the doors."
Dorothy Jones said she and Howard had been tried to usher the woman away at the event.
Jones KC pressed the witness on whether she and Howard put hands on the woman.
"We didn't physically do anything, we just asked her to leave and we escorted her with our open arms," Dorothy Jones said.
Jones KC asked what she meant by open arms.
"As in we were [ushering]," she said, "not touching."
Jones KC scrutinised the witnesses recollection of events, where people were standing and the timelines of the evening.
He asked about a report of the incident made by NZ First to the Northern Club following the incident.
Jones KC said mention of the woman who yelled wasn't in the Northern Club report, despite the witness saying she had mentioned it.
"Did you raise that with the Northern Club, 'hey the report isn't accurate because I mentioned these other things as well,'" he asked.
"No, I didn't," Dorothy Jones responded.
"Is that because the incident so called with the woman in the yellow dress was really a nothing," Jones KC said.
Dorothy Jones denied that, to which Jones KC did suggested she hadn't mentioned it because it wasn't important enough to actually say.
"I did mention it," she reiterated.
Dorothy Jones said she had privacy concerns for the donors present at the event.
"Not physical safety," David Jones KC asked.
"No," said Dorothy Jones.
The inquiry continues tomorrow.
