Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, was so concerned about the insurance implications of her son's girlfriend failing a blood test after a car crash she hoped a "miracle" would remove any trace of alcohol, secret phone taps reveal.

"Let's hope that St Anthony does a miracle and takes all the alcohol out of the sample," Ms Cunneen told a tow truck driver.

 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/crown-prosecutor-margaret-cunneen-and-tow-truck-driver-ben-de-jonk-phone-recordings-revealed-20160224-gn2rkx.html

 

 

New details of secret phone taps involving Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, have shed fresh light on why the Australian Crime Commission sent them to the NSW corruption watchdog for investigation instead of the police.

The recordings show that police attending a car accident involving Ms Cunneen's son's girlfriend, Sophia Tilley – that sparked a corruption investigation – were said to be "bowing" to the prosecutor when she arrived at the scene.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-police-are-bowing-cunneen-phone-taps-shed-light-on-crime-commission-decision-20160225-gn3ryi.html#ixzz41BrZ2zt3
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Note: image at top from Gus' collection of useless journals, newspapers and books...

 

In a letter to committee chairman Damien Tudehope after Fairfax Media revealed the transcript excerpts last week, Ms Cunneen's lawyers "ask that the chair seek written confirmation from Ms Latham and each of the members of the parliamentary committee as to whether either they or any of their staff" leaked the material to journalists.

The letter says Ms Cunneen has instructed them to refer the matter to the commissioners of the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police "for immediate investigation" as to whether the leak breached the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act or the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.

Mr Tudehope said: "The committee does not take directions from [Ms Cunneen's] lawyers."

The committee met on Monday as planned but the only formal decision made was to postpone its next meeting from this Friday to an as yet undecided date.

This was because it has yet to receive legal advice as to its powers to publicly release material gained under the the federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.Excerpts of the secret recording revealed by Fairfax Media capture Ms Cunneen telling a tow truck driver she had sent a message to her son's girlfriend, who had been drinking alcohol, "to start having chest pains" after a 2014 car accident to delay being given a breath test.

It also reveals Ms Cunneen expressed the hope that the delay would mean an ambulance would be called and the woman, Sophia Tilley, would record a blood alcohol reading of zero once tested.

The recording prompted the Independent Commission Against Corruption to launch an investigation into whether Ms Cunneen had tried to pervert the course of justice.

When she tendered the transcript and audio to the committee last Thursday, Ms Latham urged their public release because they serve to "undermine the basis for the adverse findings" in a damning report on ICAC's investigation of Ms Cunneen by its inspector, David Levine.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cunneen-laywers-want-inquiry-mps-to-affirm-they-did-not-leak-phone-tap-transcript-20160215-gmulhs.html#ixzz41WOxtrgx
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New evidence "demolishes the conspiracy theories" that the Independent Commission Against Corruption is a rogue agency, including in its failed pursuit of Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, says Labor's shadow attorney-general, Paul Lynch.

Mr Lynch said revelations by the head of the Police Integrity Commission, Bruce James, that it has used "notices to produce" to force the immediate production of material showed ICAC had not acted in a rogue fashion when demanding Ms Cunneen's mobile phones.

"Whatever else this demonstrates, it's clear that ICAC was not alone in using notices to produce in this way," Mr Lynch said.

"I don't think this was the way Parliament intended these provisions to be used, but it demolishes the conspiracy theories that ICAC was a rogue agency."

 

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/icac-not-a-rogue-agency-shadow-attorneygeneral-paul-lynch-says-new-evidence-demolished-conspiracy-theories-about-margaret-cunneen-tapes-20160303-gn9hyj.html

 

The inspector of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, David Levine, has warned the watchdog risks the perception it has a "craving to sacrifice" the rights, liberties and reputations of those it pursues "on the altar of its self-perceived authority".

In a furious retort to ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham's claim that his damning December report to the NSW Parliament on the agency's failed pursuit of crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen was fundamentally flawed, Mr Levine called for stronger oversight of the watchdog.

He declared Ms Cunneen had done "no more than what any ordinary member of the community as a mother would do upon learning of a motor accident involving her son's girlfriend".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/inspector-says-icac-risks-perception-it-is-craving-to-sacrifice-reputations-20160313-gni2wb.html#ixzz42q9KEHED
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So, according to St Levine, should we get into an accident, it's kosher to flaunt the law and do everything we can to hide the fact we're pissed as a fart. If this is the lesson "ordinary member of the community as a mother would do upon learning of a motor accident involving her son's girlfriend" we learn from a debased inspector of ICAC, then may as well give up on ALL the laws designed to keep this society civilised. Why not get a handgun, shoot police and claim self-defence? That would go like a treat in the USA.

 

 

 

She told the receptive Commonwealth Day lunch audience that "newspapers want sales".

"I'm sure you'll agree the tawdry, gossipy, nasty, catty trash that passes for headline news in some of our papers has never in history been so vulgar or unedifying," she said.

"Then the bloggers and the tweeters take up the cudgels. Fine them! Sack them! Tar and feather them! Castrate them! Hang them! Feed their entrails to the hyenas!"

"This is not inclusivity," she said. "This is civilisation in retrograde."

Ms Cunneen said because the investigative agencies cannot themselves prosecute their targets, "the media is co-opted for the role of the punisher and the role is embraced in some quarters with a relish that could easily be mistaken for malice".

She claimed that "there is much more vicious and vociferous attack on people shamed in the media by or because of the methods of these government agencies than there is on murderers, terrorists and paedophiles".

In her 30-minute speech, a recording of which was obtained by Fairfax Media, the closest Ms Cunneen came to naming ICAC was to jokingly mention "the monster that ate its own father".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/margaret-cunneen-attacks-icac-and-its-media-punishers-20160314-gnio4y.html#ixzz42s6Ch7Pi
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Well may I say here, in pseudo-confidence, Ms Cunneen did in my view a lousy job when she was judge or prosecutor —especially in the investigations and prosecution of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the Police in New South Wales... Lucky Julia Gillard saw fit to launch a Royal Commission into sexual abuse in institutions. More of this of course will surface at some stage — and I may be wrong, I believe that Margaret is trying to destroy ICAC before ICAC is proven to be correct... 
Civilisation in retrograde is when being drunk and speaking "out of school" in local pubs. — or telling someone to fake chest pains to beat the law...

 

It is quite interesting. Listening around the trap, Labor and the Libs (CONservatives) are trying hard to demolish ICAC. Well not all Labor, but there are some interesting defence of Ms Cunneen from all quarters, especially from those who have been burnt for corruption by the said ICAC. They are ganging up. 

 

They are trying to re-gild their lost gloss. The defence of Ms Cunnee is strident, as if she did nothing wrong like any housewife would. She is cleverly garnering her support from "mates" in both parties to get rid of ICAC's mastery of digging under corrupt behaviour. She is getting her media mates to pummel ICAC. We all know about the media (MMMMMMMM)

"Me? I did nothing wrong, I did not know, I can't remember, honest, your honour, the cash was in a brown paper bag so I had no idea how much there was, and it could have been a fake Cartier watch, there were some people in suits with trowels in their hands, liking their lips at the local branch meeting in regard to developments, but I have no idea who they were..."... 

And of course nothing inappropriate when the Ethanol lobby had twenty meetings with the premier and gave oodles of cash to his party. In order to appear "not corrupt" a bit of cash may have flown to the Labor party as well... I suppose corrution would be in the non-declaration of the "donations", rather than in the donations, and their size, themselves. Charity has to be registered...

We live in the turdy waters of politics where you need a peg on your nose and gum-boots to walk pass parliament and other official institutions in which your assets are "leased" for a million years to private enterprises without you knowing about it.

 

Yes... ICAC is in the way of brown paper bag full of bucks for political parties, especially for the LIBs (CONservatives).

Cunneen is their assault cannon...

 

The commissioner of the state's corruption watchdog has hit back at its inspector, saying he has a clear bias against her.

Commissioner Megan Latham today responded to evidence that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inspector David Levine gave to a parliamentary inquiry on Monday, describing the agency's investigation into Margaret Cunneen's case as a "debacle" which led to "demeaning blood-letting" in the media.

Mr Levine previously wrote a report which slammed the investigation into whether Ms Cunneen told her son's girlfriend to fake chest pains to avoid a breath test.

This led to a high-profile feud between himself and Ms Latham.

The matter is now being investigated by the state parliamentary committee into the ICAC.

Ms Latham told the committee hearing that the commission was denied procedural fairness by the inspector.

"The inspector does not refute it," she said.

"In fact, he reinforced that denial in the course of his evidence, and I quote: 'I had no intention to engage with ICAC in a tit for tat debate about every alleged flaw, legal error, misunderstanding or non-understanding'."

Ms Latham said Mr Levine's evidence on Monday showed he had already made up his mind about whether the Cunneen investigation was worthwhile before he had even looked into it.

"Further, he said: 'Even if the doctrine and principles and practice of procedural fairness were applied at the purest level, the outcome would still be carved in granite'," Ms Latham said.

"The inspector's evidence on Monday discloses 'actual bias' — that is a partial and prejudiced approach to the assessment of the commission's conduct, and my conduct."

Allegations cannot be described as 'legless': Latham

The ICAC commissioner referred to Mr Levine's choice of language on Monday to support her argument that he was biased against her.

"[Words like] 'shenanigans' to describe the commission's procedures, grotesquery, obsession with power ... that my responses included an incomprehensible statement which was made out of desperation and not the exercise of reason," Ms Latham said.

She said the ICAC inspector had gone much further in his attack on her on Monday than he had in the report itself.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-18/corruption-watchdog-boss-accuses-inspector-of-bias-over-cunneen/7257748

 

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The government, the politicians, the police and the judiciary hate ICAC, because ICAC is doing its job. Don't expect any favours or balance from this inquiry. They already have decided to hide some of the evidence, like the "Cunneen tapes".

And yes Cunneen made a very bad call when trying to pervert the course of justice. But the powers in charge, the political parties, the police, the judiciary and dare I say the Catholic church are trying to protect her — attacking ICAC in the process.

Now for the Royal Commission on institutionalised sexual abuse... Will the commissioner have the ammos to blow up that farce that the New South Wales sexual abuse inquiry was...

Meanwhile it was a cheap shot from a NSW politician to claim the tiff between Levine and Latham was "like an argument in a marriage". May I say "what a prick"... This shows the poor calibre of men (he was a male politician) running the affairs of the state... Levine has been deliberately attacking Latham's work FOR NO OTHER REASON than Levine is a supporter of Cunneen — a lawyer/prosecutor who goofed. Indefensible.