OPI and the Saga So Far......

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:54 am Post subject: OPI and the Saga So Far......

I refer to the current stories making news headlines about the role of the OPI and its investigation into police corruption.

The Office of Police Integrity have no credibility as of current date.

Yes - it has all the tools of the trade to do the job, including powers to compel witnessess to answer question.

I am sure they even have a copy of "The Untouchables" movie poster in their Office.

However, all that has been revealed so far in real terms is to uncover some high level dirty office politics.

Was it really so wrong of Noel Ashby to aspire to be Chief?

You can't honestly tell me that doesn't go on in all high level government jobs!!

So lets examine the effectiveness of the OPI so far;

So far they have managed to cut into some Armed Robbery Detectives about assaulting a suspect. To date, one officer,
Detective Inspector Rankin, has beaten the charges against him. Charges dropped and not proceeded with on the day of Court.

Now that was a strong case.......

The other Detectives resigned and so far have only been charged with minor matters so they stay in the domain of the Magistrates Court. The question that needs to be asked here is....... is the OPI afraid of scutiny of itself by the superior Courts.

Does the OPI lack the conviction to send someone to trial?

If you consider yourself the corruption busters - lay the appropriate charges and let the community and the Courts decide.

Here is your chance OPI - charge the disgraced members of Force Command with the charges that ALLEDEGLY were the reasons for the phone tapes in the first place:- conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, perjury and offences concerning the disclosure of secret OPI hearings and phone tap information.

The OPI have claimed the glory - now do the paperwork.

"If you want to carry the badge - be prepared to follow it through......"

THE Office of Police Integrity, the independent watchdog charged with investigating police corruption, has been holding public hearings into high-level leaks from within Victoria Police.

The OPI has extraordinary powers and can compel witnesses to answer questions. In September and October it held a series of secret hearings in which key suspects were grilled.

What happened then?

The secret hearings allowed the OPI to gather evidence on oath about the leaks. We now know that at least two people — assistant commissioner Noel Ashby and police media director Stephen Linnell — were forced to give evidence in private. Others may have been summoned.
Last week the OPI proceeded to public hearings, in which it played bugged telephone conversations between the two men and also between Mr Ashby and the secretary of the Police Association, Paul Mullett. The calls contradicted much of the evidence that Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell had given in private.

What did the calls reveal?

Much of the taped conversations amounted to political back-stabbing. Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell displayed a contempt for other senior members of the force, particularly for Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland, who has won kudos in recent years for having cleaned up Melbourne's ganglands war.
Mr Ashby, a career cop of 35 years' standing, and Mr Overland, whose CV boasts management and law qualifications, were widely seen as potential internal rivals to replace Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon when she retires.

Some of the scuttlebutt had the potential to embarrass force command, as well as the State Government. For example, the pair leaked news of a planned business study trip for Mr Overland to Fontainebleau, France, and suggestions that the trip was part of a reward offered by Terry Moran, the head of the Premier's department, as part of efforts to convince Mr Overland not to take a job interstate.

The phone taps recorded Mr Ashby passing a lot of this information to Mr Mullett and on occasions sooling him on to use it for political gain.

The treachery was explained by Mr Ashby in his evidence to the OPI as part of his attempt to cosy up to Mr Mullett, with whom he was trying to stitch up a new enterprise bargaining agreement for Victoria's 14,000-strong police force. Mr Ashby was personally selected by Ms Nixon to negotiate the deal with the union.

Is that all?

No. The tapes revealed something far more damning. They showed that Mr Linnell had also shared with Mr Ashby details of a top-secret investigation, code-named Operation Briars, which focused on a serving detective and a former police officer suspected of being linked to a gangland murder of a male prostitute in 2003. Mr Linnell was one of only four people in the loop.
The OPI believes that Mr Linnell disclosed to Mr Ashby details of Briars and that Mr Ashby in August passed the names of the officers under investigation to Mr Mullett. A string of logged telephone calls suggested that the word then travelled from Mr Mullett to the Police Association's president, Brian Rix, and onto one of the named men, Detective Sergeant Peter Lalor, putting him on alert and sabotaging the investigation.

Mr Ashby denies leaking the names, although under sustained questioning on Friday he conceded that he might have "inadvertently" blabbed them.

What was the motivation for the leak?

There has been no evidence so far suggesting that Mr Ashby knew intimately the two men who were the targets of the investigation. What seems likely is that Mr Ashby, a gossip and self-promoter, was again passing the information to Mr Mullett as part of his efforts to curry favour.
The backing of the powerful police union would have stood Mr Ashby in good stead — helping him clinch the EBA, thereby winning him career points.

Mr Linnell's actions would appear less sinister, more bungling. Clearly, he enjoyed trading in rumour and was keen to champion his "mentor" and "best friend". But there has been no evidence yet suggesting that he revealed information about Operation Briars to Mr Ashby expecting it to be passed on in similar fashion to other leaks.

In evidence, Mr Linnell implied that the pair had an understanding that some highly confidential matters would go no further. His indiscretion, however, guaranteed that he would become collateral damage.

Both Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell have resigned in disgrace. Another casualty has been Inspector Glen Weir, head of the police media unit, who has been suspended on full pay after it was revealed that he illegally discussed with Mr Linnell details of the OPI's private inquiry and acted as a go-between as Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell tried to dodge tapped phones.

Why was the OPI bugging them in the first place?

That's not clear. According to the evidence, Operation Briars was set up in May. The earliest date of a taped conversation presented in open court was June 6 — between Mr Ashby and Mr Mullett, who was fishing for details about senior policemen and the key taskforces to which they might have been assigned.
Had details of Briars already been leaked? Or had details of preliminary investigations been leaked ahead of the establishment of Briars? Either way, legislation dictates that to obtain approval for phone taps the OPI must convince a judge that it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect a serious offence has been committed.

It is unclear whether Mr Ashby's or Mr Mullet's phone was tapped first. During the hearing, evidence pointed to Mr Ashby intervening in an internal disciplinary hearing of a policewoman as a favour to Mr Mullett. Might that have triggered the OPI's interest?

What does the OPI say?

The OPI is guarded about how its investigation proceeded. Its anti-corruption remit means it can investigate police matters after receiving a complaint or tip-off, or do so of its own accord. In his opening remarks, counsel assisting the OPI, Greg Lyon, SC, indicated that OPI director George Brouwer had decided "on his own motion to conduct an investigation into, among other things, alleged unauthorised communication of confidential information by Victoria Police members".
What happens next?
Mr Mullett is expected to appear before the OPI today. He has had time to digest several days' damning evidence. Was he also called before the OPI's private interrogation? If so, what answers might he have given? So far, the OPI has not played any recording of a conversation between Mr Ashby and Mr Mullett in which the two men discussed the names of the policemen that were targets of Operation Briars. If such a recording exists, it would provide the OPI's coup de grace in a sting that would destroy the hard-talking union strongman.
So far, Mr Mullett appears to have been reasonably guarded in taped conversations. Did intercepts record conversations between Mr Mullett and Mr Rix, and between Mr Rix and the "target" of Briars, Mr Lalor?

The Victorian Government will be watching closely. In one taped phone conversation, Mr Ashby suggested to Mr Linnell that should Mr Mullett be forced to appear at an inquiry, "he's going to come out with some shit that will rock them".

And then?

Retired Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox is presiding over the OPI hearing. Other witnesses could yet be called. Mr Wilcox will prepare a report. The OPI, with the Office of Public Prosecutions, will then determine the nature of any charges. These are likely to include conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, perjury and offences concerning the disclosure of secret OPI hearings and phone tap information, all of which can lead to jail.