W.A. Police crooks again
A LAW professor and his female companion, who were arrested and tasered in Fremantle, have launched a civil lawsuit against three police officers and the State over the incident.
Charges against University of WA assistant professor of law Robert Cunningham and the women, Catherine Atoms, were dismissed on April 29 last year.
As first revealed on PerthNow's iPad app tonight, they are now claiming unspecified damages for what they describe as police brutality.
A magistrate previously ruled their arrest on November 2, 2008, was unjustified and unlawful, and accused police witnesses of collusion.
Fremantle-based police officers Simon Traynor, Peter James Clark and Glenn Alexander Caldwell have been named in a District Court writ, which was lodged in October.
Mr Cunningham and Ms Atoms are claiming damages for personal injuries sustained at the time of the incident and afterwards.
They claim the officers:
*Breached a duty of care owed to them.
*Breached their statutory duty.
*Assaulted them.
*Falsely imprisoned them.
They are also claiming interest at a rate of six per cent per year.
Three police inquiries found no wrongdoing but the Corruption and Crime Commission’s Parliamentary Inspector Christopher Steytler found evidence of police misconduct.
In the lead up to his trial, CCTV footage of police tasering the pair was stolen from Mr Cunningham’s university office before police presented edited footage of the incident in court.
The chain of events raised suggestions police had tampered with the evidence, Mr Steytler found.
In September, Labor MP Tony Buti alleged police were trying to put pressure on Ms Atoms by claiming officers went to her house in 2009 and tried to intimidate her.
“The police officer tells her ‘your car has been involved in a hit and run accident’, she had no idea what he was talking about,” he said at the time.
Mr Buti called for the officer’s actions to be investigated.
The same month, Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan referred the matter back to the CCC.
SOURCE
About Me
- JR
- My full name is Dr. John Joseph RAY. I am a former university teacher aged 70 at the time of writing in early 2014. I was born of Australian pioneer stock in 1943 at Innisfail in the State of Queensland in Australia. After an early education at Innisfail State Rural School and Cairns State High School, I taught myself for matriculation. I took my B.A. in Psychology from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. I then moved to Sydney (in New South Wales, Australia) and took my M.A. in psychology from the University of Sydney in 1969 and my Ph.D. from the School of Behavioural Sciences at Macquarie University in 1974. I first tutored in psychology at Macquarie University and then taught sociology at the University of NSW. I am Australian born of working class origins and British ancestry. My doctorate is in psychology but I taught mainly sociology in my 14 years as a university teacher. In High Schools I taught economics. I have taught in both traditional and "progressive" (low discipline) High Schools. Fuller biographical notes here
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