Gulating Court of Appeal judges Ole Ødegård is acquitted of lying. It will be ready on Friday afternoon. Ødegård has had one of the top jobs in the judiciary in Møre and Romsdal. He has been a judge, served as police chief and for several years was the head of the court in Nordmøre. He was convicted in the district court. Now he has been acquitted in the Gulating Court of Appeal: “The majority based this on the fact that it cannot be considered proven that the defendant has behaved as described in the prosecution decision”. – It is a judgment that involves a complete clean-washing of the magistrate Ødegård. Much clearer cannot be a verdict that a defendant is innocent and that the charges should never have been brought, says defense attorney Halvard Helle. Helle underlines that the verdict makes it clear that Ødegård has not done what is stated in the indictment, and that in any case he did not do it on purpose. Alleged he lied about the mistress For the high-profile lawyer, the problem started when questions were raised as to whether he was incompetent in a court case where the mistress had been on the witness list. She worked in child protection and was summoned as a witness. But he replied that it had ended a long time ago. Shortly afterwards, the mistress told the local newspaper that the two had been meeting in secret for a long time, long after the time he said it was over. Both in the district court and in the court of appeal, the former mistress had a stack of papers with her. She read out the time and place for 25 secret meetings the two were to have in the months after he explained to the court that it was over. The overview shows that they met at a hotel, in the garage at the police station in Kristiansund and in the car at various parking lots. Here at the police station in Kristiansund, the two must have met several times after Ødegård said it was over. Photo: Synnøve Hole / news Acquitted in the court of appeal Ole Ødegård was sentenced to prison for 30 days when the Hordaland district court heard the case this spring. Then the court came to the conclusion that Ødegård also did not explain himself truthfully during the trial: “It is completely without credibility when the defendant now says that he did not think about the contact in 2018-2019 with the content and scope it had been”. He appealed, and now the Gulating Court of Appeal has reversed. The judgment is not legally binding until the appeal period has expired. In the district court, Ole Ødegård was sentenced to prison for 30 days. Photo: Odd Arne Olderbakk / news Timeline of the case against Ole Ødegård The case against Ole Ødegård has been dealt with by the court twice. Here you get an overview of the details of the case. A father from the East of Norway meets in Nordmøre district court and fights for the right to see his child. The trial lasts three days, the man loses the case. The father knows well one of the people who has been summoned as a witness, a woman from the child protection service. What he does not know is that for a long time she has been secretly in love with the judge in the case, Ole Ødegård. The father of the child receives an anonymous letter in the mail. It says that the sender thinks he should know that judge Ole Ødegård has been in love with the woman from the child welfare service for many years. The child’s father is reluctant to let the case go, and explains it, among other things, with regard to the privacy of the parties and that it is not possible to find out who sent the letter. A few months later, new information about the relationship comes. A colleague in child protection is said to have told an expert that Ødegård and the woman are lovers. This may mean that the judgment from November 2019 in which the child’s father lost the right to contact with his child is not valid due to incapacity. This causes the child’s father and his lawyer to speak out. In a letter to the Frostating Court of Appeal, the lawyer writes that Ødegård was incompetent and asks the Court of Appeal to investigate the case. Court judge Bjørn Berg in the Frostating Court of Appeal sends an e-mail to Ødegård and informs them that they have received questions about their competence. Berg asks Ødegård to inform him about the relationship and if he himself thinks this makes him incompetent. Ødegård is also asked about what, if any, was the reason why he has not disclosed this in connection with the trial. Ødegård answers as follows: “I had a relationship with NN on a private level during a period when I worked as a municipal attorney, and have met her sporadically as recently as 2017. During the parental dispute case being processed in the district court in autumn 2018, I did not think about the relationship with NN as problematic”. In January 2020, the Frostating Court of Appeal concludes that judge Ole Ødegård was not incompetent when he ruled in the child distribution case in November 2018. On 22 March 2020, the appeal committee in the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case. One year later, local newspaper Tidens Krav wrote about the case. Here, a different picture emerges of the lover’s relationship. The woman in child protection claims in the newspaper that the relationship has been going on for a long time after Ødegård has assured the court that it is over. She claims that she has large amounts of text messages which show that this is true. news has also seen several of these messages. Ødegård goes out in the local newspaper shortly after and rejects the petition, without being specific about what he thinks is wrong. After reading in the local newspaper what Ole Ødegård’s former girlfriend says, the father of the child, who lost the child support case, decides to report Ødegård to the police. He sends the case to the Attorney General and also delivers a copy of the anonymous letter he received in the post two years before. He also notifies the Court Administration about the case. Despite the police case, Ole Ødegård is nominated as number 1 for the job as new divisional judge in the Frostating Court of Appeal. The Employment Council is aware of the claim that he will appear before the court, and according to leader Arnfinn Agnalt, this is an important topic during the interview. The council concludes that Ødegård is nevertheless the best for the job. Ole Ødegård is formally prosecuted for breach of Section 265 of Straffelova, for false statement: “For having given an incorrect statement that was intended to be used in a document issued as part of the administration of justice as evidence”. The court administration asks the Ministry of Justice to suspend Ole Ødegård pending the verdict, and just before Christmas he will be formally suspended. In the decision it is stated, among other things: “Such behavior as appears from the prosecution decision is incompatible with the requirements for integrity and personal decency that a judge should possess, and violates the respect and trust that is necessary for office”.1. -3. On March 2022, the trial took place in Hordaland district court. 7-10. In November 2022, the appeal case went to the Gulating Court of Appeal.
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Judge Ole Ødegåd is acquitted of lying in court
