The bailing hearing for Oscar Pistorius has adjourned for the day and will resume on Friday as controversy now surrounds the lead investigator in the Valentine's Day murder case against the Olympian sprinter.
South African police have told prosecutors that detective Hilton Botha is due in court in May to face attempted murder charges over a 2011 shooting, a development that comes after a tough day on the stand for the officer.
Prosecutors said they were unaware of the charges against Botha, a 24-year police veteran, when they put him on the stand Wednesday to explain why Pistorius should not be given bail in the shooting death of his girlfriend.
Prosecutors say Pistorius intentionally killed model Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria and have charged him with premeditated murder. Pistorius says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and that the shooting was accidental.
Police Brig. Neville Malila told The Associated Press that Botha — who gave testimony in the Pistorius bail hearing on Wednesday — is charged in an incident in October 2011 when Botha and two other police officers allegedly fired at a minibus taxi they were trying to stop. The vehicle was carrying seven passengers at the time.
Bulewa Makeke, spokeswoman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, has urged that Botha be removed from the Pistorius case. She said police will have to make that decision.
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday. (Themba Hadeba/Associated Press) Malila said police had learned Wednesday, the same day that Botha appeared in court to oppose Pistorius's bail application, that the charges against Botha and the two others had been reinstated by the Director of Public Prosecutions on Feb. 4 — 10 days before Steenkamp was shot.
Malila said police were now waiting for details from the Botha case file from the public prosecutor.
Medupe Simasiku, the spokesman for the prosecutors charging Pistorius with premeditated murder, said he couldn't say how the charges against Botha would affect their case against Pistorius.
In a separate development Thursday, the judge briefly cleared the court, citing a "threat" from outside the building. The hearing resumed after a five-minute break.
Confused testimony
In the state case against the Olympic athlete, Botha offered often confused testimony and conceded that nothing in Pistorius' account of the Steenkamp shooting contradicted the police's version.
Simasiku said based on the reinstated accusation against Botha, "we can take action and see if we remove him from the investigation or if he stays."
Botha was the lead investigator in an assault claim against Pistorius in 2009. Pistorius's lawyers said police arrested the athlete and held him overnight at a police station and said they will pursue a lawsuit against police for wrongful arrest.
The current case against Pistorius, which is still only in a bail hearing, has riveted much of the world. Pistorius, the 26-year-old athlete known as the Blade Runner for his carbon-fibre running prosthetic legs, says he fired shots through the locked door of a toilet enclosed inside his bathroom because he thought there was an intruder in there.
Steenkamp was hit three times, in the head, right elbow and right hip, police say, and prosecutors argue Pistorius intended to kill his 29-year-old girlfriend after a fight in the early hours of Valentine's Day.
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