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NEWS > 13 January 2007

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 Article sourced from

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,A
13 January 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.


Police union U-turn on drug-ch

Victoria's powerful police union has backflipped on a 2004 decision to deny funding to one of its former bosses in his fight against drug trafficking and bribery charges, for which he was acquitted in 2005.

The Police Association's quiet turnabout six weeks ago is the first of its type in the union's history. It means former detective and union vice-president Glenn Saunders will be reimbursed tens of thousands of dollars in union funds to pay for the lawyers he hired to fight corruption charges.

In 2004, the union's board unanimously decided to deny Mr Saunders funding after it found that evidence gathered by corruption investigators showed he had not acted in good faith while a serving detective.

The revised decision has angered some senior corruption and crime department sources, who say the evidence presented to the 2004 board and the present board had not changed. In deciding whether to fund an accused officer, the association must be satisfied he or she acted lawfully or in good faith.

The rehearing of Mr Saunders' application came after he had argued that factionalism in the former board had tainted its decision. Mr Saunders also claimed the breakdown of his personal relationship with the former board's president, Detective Sergeant Janet Mitchell, had influenced the former board's decision.

In 2004, the association's board was split into two factions, supporting either Sergeant Mitchell or the union secretary, Paul Mullett. Sergeant Mitchell's key supporters are no longer on the union's board.

The association's acting secretary, Bruce McKenzie, refused to confirm whether Mr Saunders had been given access to union funds, saying cost fund applications were private.

During Mr Saunders' 2005 drug-trafficking trial, the prosecution alleged the detective was part of a plan to steal $100,000 of marijuana from a criminal at the St Kilda Marina in 1999. But Mr Saunders' defence team said he had attended the marina to search for guns, and having found none in the criminal's truck, left the scene empty-handed.

Mr Saunders was acquitted by a Victorian County Court jury in May 2005. He was also cleared of bribery offences during a separate trial. In both cases, key criminal witnesses, who had earlier admitted in court to their corrupt dealings with Mr Saunders, refused to testify during his trials.

Mr Saunders resigned from the police force in September 2005 while anti-corruption officers were preparing a discipline brief to allow the Chief Commissioner to sack him.

The former detective's career has been dogged with controversy, although he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Murder charges against Mr Saunders and six other police officers over the shooting death of armed robber Graham Jensen were dropped in 1995. He stepped down as union vice-president after becoming the target of corruption investigators in 2002.

The Age was unable to contact Mr Saunders for comment.

 

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