Fiannaca's Appeal against Dismissal of Charges against Grill & Burke

Fiannaca - In Pursuit of Glory or Ignominy?

The conduct of Bruno Fianacca the deputy DPP, has goaded the Desert Rat back into action.

Fiannaca was an important player in the bringing of the CCC corruption charges against Julian Grill and Brian Burke. Fiannaca is central to the current appeals against the dismissal of the recent charges against Grill and Burke, where a Judge Michael Murray a former Crown prosecutor found that the they had "no case to answer".

Fiannaca has a very grubby record of draconian activity in relation to a number of high profile criminal fiasco’s, including the Mallard appeals and the JWRL case among other. He has been an enthusiastic soul mate of the Court Jester Major General Len Robert-Smith.

Just as well this idiot is a lawyer and not a surgeon or nurse where rigour and protocol are critical if you want avoid havoc and destruction and continue to practise those professions.

The need for Fiannaca to feed his massive ego and his incompetent pursuit of position and status beyond his ability, has created unnecessary misery for many honest and innocent citizens of Western Australia.

Fiannaca Record- When Integrity's Absent, Malice Reigns

Fiannaca's Earlier Disgrace

Senior prosecutor denies 'stifling' Mallard appeal

Posted ABC Wed Oct 24, 2007

Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca has denied trying to stifle Andrew Mallard's murder appeal. (ABC)

A senior prosecutor who contested Andrew Mallard's first attempt to appeal against his murder conviction has denied deliberately stifling efforts by the defence to subpoena material which cast doubt on Mr Mallard's guilt.

Bruno Fiannaca is giving evidence to a Corruption and Crime Commission Inquiry, which is investigating Mr Mallard's wrongful conviction for the 1994 murder of Pamela Lawrence.

The inquiry has heard that in 2002 Mr Fiannaca was asked by the Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock to consider a petition to launch an appeal from Mr Mallard's legal team.

Mr Fiannaca said although several aspects of the case had not been disclosed to the jury at trial he advised Mr Cock to oppose the appeal.

He said he was inundated with subpoena requests from Mr Mallard's legal team and at times found their actions unreasonable, but he denied trying to stop their attempts to find information which would have cast doubt over Mr Mallard's guilt.

The inquiry has been shown a report sent to Mr Fiannaca from a British forensic expert confirming that despite the prosecution case at trial, a spanner drawn by Mr Mallard could not have been used to kill Mrs Lawrence.

The report was not provided to Mr Mallard's lawyers until six months after it was written, but Mr Fiannaca has denied "sitting on it", saying he needed to clarify some things and it was always his intention to disclose it.

"Pigs might fly?"

Fiannaca - Misconduct by DDP Prosecutor?

Fiannaca get the biggest Shellacking Ever of a Senior Prosecutor by a Senior Judge

from Crikey.com




13 September 2010
Justice takes a back seat again in WA
by Greg Barns

Last Friday was not a good one for the Western Australian Office of the DPP. Its conduct in a case involving a young man aged 17, who had been given a two-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of a serious assault that resulted in the death of the victim, was described by the Western Australian Chief Justice Wayne Martin as a “a conspicuous departure from appropriate prosecutorial conduct”, and as “patently indefensible”.

The case known as State of WA v JWRL was a high-profile one in Perth. Steven Rowe, a 17-year-old, was killed in 2008 after a fight in a suburban park. Rowe was bashed over the head with a garden stake by the defendant, who cannot be named because he was not 18 at the date of the offence. A widely reported Supreme Court trial in 2009 saw a jury acquit JWRL of murder and manslaughter but find him guilty of assault.

The case was yet another from the West that involved the prosecution failing in its duty to disclose all relevant evidence to the defence. This has been a common theme in a handful of high-profile Western Australian criminal trials over the years — one involving Andrew Mallard, a man wrongfully convicted in 1995 of murder, being the most prominent. Here the DPP’s office received new information from a witness shortly before the trial but did not disclose this to the defence. Chief Justice Martin described the DPP’s office’s conduct as patently unjustifiable and that it was a “conspicuous departure from appropriate prosecutorial conduct”. Of other submissions made in the appeal by the DPP Chief Justice Martin peppered his judgment with words such as “pedantic” and “utterly without foundation”. He described another submission as “extraordinary”.

The DPP’s appeal in this case was argued by one of WA’s most senior prosecutors, Bruno Fiannaca, who has prosecuted former premier Brian Burke and who ironically argued the appeal on behalf of the state against the overturning of Mallard’s conviction by the High Court in 2005. Given the fact that the state’s most senior judge is so relentlessly scathing of the conduct of DPP’s office in the JWRL trial and thought its appeal was without any merit, WA Attorney-General Christian Porter, a former prosecutor himself, might care to ask some very hard questions of the office responsible for running the state’s criminal cases. With the JWRL decision, the roll call of miscarriages of justice in WA just grew by one — and that’s one too many.

Demise of "nowhere man" Carpenter

Isn't he a nowhere man, living in a nowhere land, making up his nowhere plans, for nobody.
Doesn't have a point of view, knows not where he's going to .....

Did youu have the misfortune of watching Alan Carpenter's retirement announcement on ABC TV last night?

The interview was marked by immaturity and superficiality.

The ALP Caucas gave Jim McGinty the failed former minister a free hand to pick leading lights for safe seats and Carpenter was his fifth choice after five knockbacks.

No person can claim to be grown up if they don't take responsibility for their own decisions. Carpenter blamed everybody except himself for his demise. He followed his own well trodden path of scoring off his colleagues.

When asked to make some comment on his term he could say nothing more profound than he "had a wonderful vision" and he "got rid of Brian Burke, for which he deserved a big tick".

His lament at the loss of superannuation was a far cry from his high profile sanctimony when he self righteously campaigned for its abolition in the first blush of his Parliamentary term. He told some of his colleagues including Kim Chance, that it was" the biggest mistake of my life".

The Desert Rat knew Alan Carpenter and saw him as an abject failure, bereft of ideas to contribute to the ALP and Parliament.

Graeme Campbell got him right, from day one, two decades ago, when he told me he was a pissant.

Archer Charges "Baseless" - More Humiliation for CCC

Roberts-Smith, Silverstone and Ingham disgraced by latest CCC fiacso.

Shelley Archer gave Brian Burke, a copy of a letter that was already public. The letter was given openly by the Shire of Broome and was publically available on the Shire of Broome website. All pealing companies received it except Brian Burkes client - who engaged him because he thought he was being victimised by the Fisheries Department..

The incompetent Corruption and Crime Commission ignored the fact that the letter was publically available and dishonestly claimed the letter was “confidential” – how ignorantly quaint or is the breathless incompetence of the CCC on display again?

The Desert Rat and many others suspected these charges should never have been brought against Shelley Archer and that she should never have been subjected to the ordeal that she has had to face. The DPP conceded in his short press release that there was “no clear evidence that there was any actual benefit to Mr Burke”. That didn't stop her enemies in the Labor Party who have no regard for natural justice.

The CCC ruined Shelley Archer’s political career and reputation; McGinty and Carpenter turned caucus against her and the rest, mostly to their dishonour, followed suite and she was forced out of the Labor Party and out of Parliament by her gutless colleagues.

Labor MP John Ford’s comments on ABC TV the night the charges were dropped that he had no sympathy for her were just disgraceful. The smacked of old fashioned Stalinism. Her secretary Shelley Eaton disowned her and grabbed her seat in Parliament. It would be interesting what Shelley Eaton now thinks about her behaviour to Shelley Archer. Archer was stoically confronted an array of malignant forces and maintained her loyalty to her friends and was ready to take the CCC head on in Court. The CCC denied her the chance to completely demolished the CCC’s credibility.

The Desert Rat holds with contempt these unthinking and spineless types who hunt in packs; like the follower of Stalin or Hitler who did their bidding. These camp dogs and confederates would never be found among the ranks of the partisans standing up and fighting for what is right. They would sell their principles to the lowest bidder. Thirty pieces of silver would be extortion.

The whole episode reflects poorly on those members of parliament that joined in and cheered the public "flogging and hanging" of Shelley Archer. Some of them may well be the next victims of the precedent they have allowed; they have created a flawed system that will consume other innocent people and politicians.

Although these matters did not relate to Smith’s Beach investigation directly, they were a part of the CCC clumsy and dishonest attempt to find evidence of corruption by Brian Burke and Julian Grill, n the sworn enemies of CCC architect the abject failure Jim McGinty. After $50 million wasted by the CCC on the Burke Grill vendetta, it is clear that Grill and Burke most often achieve good for the State in situations where many parliamentary incompetent were too visionless and indolent to aspire.

CCC humiliated again on Smith’s Beach

CCC's Phony Brabazon Charge - Exposed as Grubby Politicking

The grovelling but unreserved apology by Major General Len Roberts-Smith to senior public servant Mark Brabazon underscores the abject failure of the Corruption and Crime Commission and its inability to objectively investigate the Smith’s Beach matter.

It was a case of verdict now and gather the evidence later, even fabricate it if necessary and destroy and “prosecute them through the media. A conviction is just “icing on the cake” to these modern day Beagle Boys.

Parliamentary Inspector Christopher Steytler QC found the reasoning and the “material” (Steytler doesn’t give it the dignity of evidence) in the report did not support the opinion expressed about Mark Brabazon.

Len Robert-Smith’s apology was immediate and he withdrew the CCC’s opinion that Mr Brabazon “acted with a lack of integrity” in his dealings with Mr Brian Burke.

That makes six people against whom the CCC has launched cases, where the CCC charges have been unceremoniously tossed out of Court.

Mike Allen. Was acquitted on two count of giving false evidence in testimony. The CCC lied and omitted facts that didn’t suite them in their report.

David McKenzie. Two charges of giving false evidence dismissed.

Paul Frewer. A concocted misconduct finding was rejected by Parliamentary Inspector Malcom McCusker QC.

Julian Grill. He was acquitted on two charges of giving false testimony in evidence. The Magistrate said he was a witness of truth.

Wally Cox. A misconduct finding was rejected by a Public Service inquiry. The CCC's only win was when Cox (probably on poor legal advice) challenged the CCC right to make a finding. Cox lost. The Judges said the CCC did have the right but stressed the judgment did not reflect on whether the finding was right or wrong. These was no vindication there for the CCC decision - only that they could express it i.e could tell lies.

The prosecutions following the Smith’s Beach inquiry were based on a dishonest investigation involving gross misconduct, of which the Desert Rat is now aware of evidence.

The Brabazon inquiry and report was a Stalinist sham to damage Brian Burke and Julian Grill. Trail by media – hoping the courts would follow suite.

The House of Cards Inquiry into Smiths Beach has already collapsed. The CCC case is in its dying throws – a death tryst of a morally bankrupt organisation that is a weeping ulcer on the justice system of Western Australia.

The Desert Rat’s opinion is that Premier Colin Barnett and the Parliament should give it the last rites.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Julian Grill's phone is still being tapped six years later, by the Robert -Smith and Silverstone entourage. They are still being spied on and photographed. Their mail is being tampered with; email and faxes are examined back at the CCC's own headquarters reminiscent of the Smolny Institute (after it was a school for noble maidens - see picture and statue of Lenin in foreground).

All in the hope that they can find some minor breach that will help justify the $50 million spent on the political witch hunt, curiously targeted at the enemies of McGinty.

Mr Ward's Death - Margaret Quirk's mea culpa

Are McGinty and Carpenter Fred Chaney's real racists?

The continued publicity following the manslaughter of Warburton Elder Mr Ward has prompted this comment. The Desert Rat previously covered this issue when praising the sole public comment from Labor by Labor MP Ben Wyatt.

Fred Chaney is reported to have weeped recently as he talked of Mr Ward's death as an example of entrenched racism in government bureaucracy.

Chaney is no doubt genuine and caring about Aboriginal people but the Desert Rat always thought he was part of the problem and not, part of the solution. Chaney talks often of self determination and Aboriginal control but it seems - never without them accepting any real responsibility for themselves.

Former Prisons Minister Margaret Quirk in a TV interview recently issued a public mea culpa in respect to Mr Ward's death saying she wanted to apologise for

"failing to convince her cabinet colleagues about the need to replace the ageing fleet of prisoner transport vehicles".

This comment suggests Quirk repeatedly asked for the funding in cabinet but got rolled.

This begs the question of who rolled her?

If either of Jim McGinty as Attorney General (and the previous Corrections Minister who jettisoned the department from his AG ministry), and or former Premier Alan Carpenter supported her call for funding, it would have been approved by cabinet.

It would appear that these two idiots were not particularly troubled to see Aboriginal prisoners shipped around the state in vehicles that could double for Pizza ovens on a hot day.

Are these the actual 'racists' to whom Chaney should have directed his remarks? Chaney is quick to criticise the public servants, but those primarily responsible are the politicians in cabinet whose did nothing when they had the opportunity to appropriate the desperately needed funding to replace these death traps.

Chaney's comments should have been directed at McGinty and Carpenter - but he avoids offending them. By the way Fred, how much did you earn Chairing McGinty's Bill of Rights inquiry and in other government sinecures?

Chaney has been on the public tit ever since he left the Senate; he like many other people who the Desert Rat thinks are the architects of the current indigenous mess.

One is entitled to ask: What practical achievements has Fred Cheney helped gain for Aboriginal people to ameliorate their plight?