Jail Attorney Arthur Taylor Arrested on Serious Drug Charges

Arthur Taylor, the country’s highest-profile former inmate and incarcerated attorney, was called to prison this morning on serious drug charges.

Police arrived at his home in Dunedin, where he has been living on probation, late this morning and arrested him.

He faces several serious drug charges, some of which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, he told the Otago Daily times before his arrest.

He said all he knew was that the allegations originated between February 1 and June 3, while he was living in Wellington.

Taylor said the filing of the charges was completely unexpected.

No search warrants had been executed on his property and he said that no illicit substance had been found on him.

“I was stunned. Damn, I’ve been through some bullshit in the past, but this …

“These are serious bloody charges.”

Taylor insisted he was innocent of the allegations and said he would plead not guilty when he appeared in court.

Taylor was granted parole in January of last year after being denied 19 times earlier.

Taylor was serving 17½ years on charges of explosives, firearms, kidnapping and conspiracy to supply methamphetamine, among other crimes. The sentence was not to end until 2022.

Taylor was initially paroled to Dunedin.

He then moved to Wellington at the end of the year, but was called to prison in June after being charged with possession of methamphetamine and violating conditions of release.

Those matters were settled for trial with only one judge in the capital in February and Taylor was confident the charges would be dropped.

More urgent was a revocation hearing with the Parole Board in January that would decide whether or not he would continue to serve the remainder of his 17-year term.

The sentence ends in 2022.

A police spokeswoman said she could not comment on Taylor’s arrest.

However, police confirmed that they assisted with a parole removal order in Dunedin this morning.

The Department of Corrections has been contacted for comment.

Almost 40 years of Taylor’s life has been spent in custody due to his more than 150 convictions for crimes including bank robbery, robbery, fraud and drugs.

In recent years, Taylor has become better known as the “jail attorney” after a series of successful court cases.

These included the 2017 indictment and trial of Roberto Conchie Harris – secret “Witness C” – for perjury in the 1990 double murder trial of David Tamihere.

He was also instrumental in the courts which ruled that denying New Zealand prisoners the right to vote was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and questioned the legality of the prison smoking ban.