TWO POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTING TO PERVERT THE COURSE OF JUSTICE

June 18, 2014 Adam Cooper Court reporter for The Age 

Police officer Kieran John Atkin manning a breath-test station. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Two police officers falsely claimed a man rammed their patrol car and assaulted and detained him, court documents allege.

The two officers, Kieran John Atkin and Brennan Roberts, appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday to face charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and assault.

Charge sheets tendered to court allege the two officers claimed the man rammed their police car with his car in Hillside, in Melbourne's north-western suburbs, on August 22 last year.

The pair also assaulted and then "injuriously imprisoned" him, the charge sheets allege.

The following day, the officers "knowingly, wilfully and corruptly" signed a police statement knowing its contents were untrue, "wholly or in part", the charge sheets allege.

Mr Roberts, 25, faces three charges, of attempting to pervert the course of justice, assaulting and imprisoning the man and signing a police statement that he knew to be untrue.

Mr Atkin, 32, faces the same charges, along with three extra counts of assault and charges of careless driving and dangerous driving.

The court heard investigators had CCTV footage related to the allegations against the officers.

Magistrate Donna Bakos granted bail to both men to return to court on August 18.

Victoria Police said Mr Atkin and Mr Roberts had been suspended following an investigation by professional standards officers after a police pursuit last year.

A police spokeswoman said Mr Atkin was a senior constable and Mr Roberts was a constable.

It is not known what station the officers are based at, though a charge sheet alleges they signed a police statement they knew to be untrue in Sunshine.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/two-police-officers-charged-with-attempting-to-pervert-the-course-of-justice-20140618-zsdjz.html#ixzz35Sw5qsvr

VICTORIAN PROTECTIVE SERVICES OFFICERS COSTING TAXPAYERS MILLIONS IN DROPOUTS

Aleks Devic Herald Sun June 20, 2014 

PSOs who drop out are costing Victorian taxpayers money.

 

VICTORIA’S gun-toting train station cop dropouts have cost taxpayers more than $2.65 million, with some quitting while still in training. 

Internal Victoria Police figures, obtained using Freedom of Information laws, show between 2011 and March 2014, 50 Protective Service Officers pulled the pin at the training academy and a further 20 resigned after getting a posting to man our railway stations.

Each PSO recruit costs $31,500 for their 12-week training course, which includes pay, uniform, operational vests and the gun.

The PSOs have a base wage of $53,641 and then get shift penalties depending on the hours they work.

Victorians will continue to pay for some PSOs who were eligible for the Emergency Service super once they were sworn in.

As part of the Coalition’s 2010 tough-on-crime election platform, it promised to have 940 PSOs at stations by November this year.

The training for transit PSOs started in 2011.

The FOI documents show transit PSOs are leaving the force for reasons including seeking other employment, leaving to work in the private sector and for “personal reasons”.

Victoria Police Acting Commander Mark Porter said 5 per cent of PSOs resigned while at the academy but once they were deployed, the attrition rate was on par with police officers.

“It’s difficult to compare this figure to police recruits undergoing training, as police train for 33 weeks, while the PSO course is 12 weeks,” Insp Porter said.

“While the PSO program is still being rolled out, we are pleased that the attrition rate is low, but it is too early to observe any trends.”

The slow take-up rate for PSOs forced Victoria Police to sideline would-be police recruits at the academy in preference of PSOs.

Force command is confident it will reach the quota with only months to go and 748 PSOs passing through the academy.

More than 11,650 people applied to become PSOs but only 5 per cent passed the exams and many failed the fitness component.

Since transit PSOs were introduced, they are trained at the academy to man train stations and PSU duties.

But those who became PSOs before 2011 need to do a bridging course in order to be placed at railway stations.

aleks.devic@news.com.au

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorian-protective-services-officers-costing-taxpayers-millions-in-dropouts/story-fni0fit3-1226961664896 

IF YOU WERE KING LARKEN ROSE

OHIO ATTORNEY RAPED WOMAN AFTER SHE REFUSED SEX WITH JUDGE FOR LIGHT SENTENCE FOR SON: TESTIMONY

Columbus, Ohio-based criminal defense attorney Javier Armengau, 52, is on trial for sexual assault on five different women dating back to 1998. One accuser says he raped her and masturbated in front of her when he defended her son several years ago.

BY Sasha Goldstein NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, June 17, 2014

10tv.com Javier Armengau has spent more than a week in court as he faces five women who accuse him of sexual assault.

An Ohio lawyer raped a woman in a courtroom conference room after he tried to convince the victim to have sex with a judge to earn a favorable sentence for her son, the attorney's client, the woman testified Monday.
Columbus-based criminal defense attorney Javier Armengau, 52, has been accused by five different women of sexual misconduct and stands trial on charges of rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, kidnapping and public indecency.
Monday’s accuser, the third woman to testify in what has thus far been a weeklong trial, said Armengau stripped naked and masturbated in front of her 10 different times in his officer during the time she employed him to defend her son, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
On Aug. 26, 2008, the night before her son was to be sentenced, Armengau and a man he told the woman was Judge Richard A. Frye discussed the idea of sex for a lenient sentence. The woman refused and the next day, Frye sentenced her son to four years in prison, the woman testified, according to the newspaper.

TOM DODGE/AP Attorney Javier H. Armengau, left, talks with criminal client John Richard Mayhew Jr. in 2006. Armengau, 52, is now facing charges of his own.

Frye has been subpoenaed to testify in the current trial.
On cross-examination, attorneys for Armengau hammered the woman for not recognizing Frye in Armengau’s office after the judge presided over all of her son’s appearances in court.
After her son’s sentencing, Armengau forced the woman into a conference room outside the courtroom and made her perform oral sex, the Dispatch reported.

10tv.com Armengau’s attorneys say the women are targeting him in a concerted effort to defame him.

The woman testified she “bawled and screamed” during sexual attack, but no one heard her.
The woman came forward in April 2013 after learning others had accused Armengau of rape.
Attorney’s for Armengau argued that her testimony Monday was different than what she told police last year, when she said in an interview that the alleged rape had happened before her son’s sentencing and that the man threatened her to “do it or your son is going down.”

10tv.com Javier Armengau, a lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, denied the sex crime allegations to WBNS-TV after being released from jail.

Armengau’s accusers say the sexual misconduct dates back to 1998.
His attorneys said in opening statements last week that the accusers are motivated by “greed, revenge, envy, jealousy and money,” according to the Dispatch.
sgoldstein@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ohio-attny-raped-woman-refused-sex-judge-testimony-article-1.1833343#ixzz3588DeHZA 

LEGAL FRATERNITY CALLS FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY

June 16, 2014

Natalie Bochenski

Bleijie should 'hand his resignation in'

The Attorney-General is more worried about "leaking than listening" and can't do his job if people "won't speak to him".

Academics say it’s unlikely the legal fraternity will “put a sock in it” about the appointment of Tim Carmody as Queensland’s Chief Justice, calling for greater transparency in the process.

Newman government minister Ian Walker, a solicitor and former member of the QLS, said on Sunday commentary about how and why Judge Carmody was elevated to the state’s top judicial job weren’t helpful. Not helpful to whom?

“The war of words that’s out there has got to stop, people have got to put a sock in it, they’ve got to shut up and they’ve got to let Justice Carmody get on with the job,” he said.
The logic of the criminal trying to stop people focusing on their crime.

Tim Carmody has been promoted to chief justice. Photo: Daniel Hurst

Peter Davis QC quit as the president of the Bar Association of Queensland last Friday citing a lack of faith in the appointment process, and claimed that private consultations he’d had with Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie were leaked.
 
The Bar Association of Australia, Queensland Law Society and Australian Lawyers Alliance have all backed Mr Davis’ stand.

Associate Professor at the University of Queensland’s School of Law Anthony Cassimatis said that showed the depth of dissatisfaction.

“I don’t think something as fundamental as the independence of the judiciary is something you can really ‘put a sock in it’ about,” he said.

“I think these issues do need to be ventilated.”

Professor Cassimatis said the main issue was the perceived closeness of Judge Carmody to the LNP government. But also important was Mr Davis’ claim that a member of the Bar Association was told its ability to issue practising certificates could be revoked if the organisation didn’t support Mr Carmody.

“The government’s said that’s not true, but the threat I think was clearly made by someone close to the government, and that’s very distressing and concerning,” he said.

“When you have the issue of confidential communications being leaked, when you have threats to the Bar Association to support a particular candidate, those are all warning signals.”

QUT Justice School Senior Lecturer Mark Lauchs said the government should show its hand to regain public confidence in the appointment of the Chief Justice.

“In a position like this, we don’t know what the qualifications are, we don’t know who else was considered, so we don’t know whether the person was qualified and whether they were the best person for the job,” he said.

“From a point of view of public accountability, we’re taking the word of a whole lot of other people… we’re in no position to make a judgement call of our own.”

Dr Lauchs said other senior public service positions would have facility for review should anyone feel aggrieved by the selection process.

“In this very serious issue that affects everyone in Queensland, governments of all party political persuasions should be ensuring that we have the confidence that the decisions were made correctly,” he said.

Dr Lauchs said if it laid its cards on the table, the government might have more luck with its sock strategy.

“They could say we’ve made our decision, here’s the reason for it, now shut up, but until they do that the rest of us normal people who don’t have the ear of the senior legal profession don’t really know.”

“The public’s still going to disagree when they have that information, but right now we don’t even have the information.”

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/legal-fraternity-calls-for-greater-transparency-20140616-zs8sr.html#ixzz35Iq4u3TQ

CHIEF JUSTICE PAUL DE JERSEY TO BE QUEENSLAND'S NEXT GOVERNOR

By Melinda Howells Updated Wed 26 Feb 2014

 

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has announced Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul de Jersey will be the state's next governor.

Justice de Jersey will take over the position in late July, replacing former diplomat Penelope Wensley, who has served as Governor since 2008.

Mr Newman says Justice de Jersey has served Queensland on the bench, the Army Reserve, and through community groups and charities. 

"His extensive experience and service to the people of Queensland makes him not just qualified, but the perfect fit, absolutely the perfect fit, for this critically important role," he said.

Justice de Jersey says he is honoured by the appointment. 

"It will be quite a different role in fact from the one I've discharged over the last 16 years as Chief Justice and the last 29 years as a judge of the Supreme Court," he said.

"But it is one which I embrace in a spirit of humility and of course in a sense of service."

Paul de Jersey's career highlights:

• 2000: Companion of the Order of Australia
• 2000: Hon LLD (Qld)
• Life Member Bar Association of Queensland
• 1998: Appointed Chief Justice of Queensland
• 1996-1996: Chairman, Law Reform Commission (Qld)
• 1985: Appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland
• 1981: Appointed Her Majesty's Counsel
• 1971: Called to the Bar in Queensland
• 1971: University of Queensland, graduated BA (1969), LL.B.(Hons)
• 1961-1965: Secondary education at Church of England Grammar School

Source: http://www.sclqld.org.au/qjudiciary/profiles/pdejersey/

 

Mr Newman says he will take time to appoint a new chief justice, in line with a promise to be more consultative.

"We will be consulting with senior members of the legal profession in Queensland," he said.
"Obviously I will also be asking His Honour for his opinion and we'll make an announcement when we've undertaken that process. 

"But we're going to listen and we're going to consult." 

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has endorsed Justice de Jersey's appointment.
Ms Palaszczuk says he is the right person for the job.
"This is a fine appointment. This is great news for Queensland," she said.

"The Chief Justice has a very distinguished career, not just on the bench of the Supreme Court, but also he's been involved in a number of community organisations right across Queensland."

Justice de Jersey and his wife Kaye, who married in 1971, have two daughters and one son - Carolyn, Alison and David - as well as three grandchildren.
 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/chief-justice-paul-de-jersey-to-be-qlds-next-governor/5285170 

 

 

FACEBOOK THREAT TO CAMPBELL NEWMAN AND WIFE LISA: NEW ZEALAND MAN SENTENCED TO PROBATION

A New Zealander who made an online threat to slit Premier Campbell Newman's throat has been sentenced to probation. 
 
Reece Kyle Casey, 26, admitted in Caboolture Magistrates Court today to using a fake Facebook account to threaten to “slit their throats”, referring to Mr Newman and his wife Lisa.

The message also warned Mr Newman to protect his loved ones, which was taken as a threat against the Premier's two daughters. Casey received a 18-month probation order and an 18-month good-behaviour bond.

An order was also made for the laptop on which the post was written to be returned to its rightful owner.

Security was strengthened around the Premier after the threat was posted to his Facebook page in January.

Premier Campbell Newman and wife Lisa were both threatened in the Facebook post.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/facebook-threat-to-campbell-newman-and-wife-lisa-new-zealand-man-sentenced-to-probation/story-e6frg6n6-1226957610958