Cop must wait to learn fate after breath-test corruption

A veteran Queensland cop who did not contest a claim that she corruptly caused two colleagues to not breath-test a retired interstate police officer will have to wait to learn her fate.

A veteran Queensland cop – who did not contest a claim that she corruptly caused two colleagues to not breath-test a retired interstate police officer who had been drinking wine before driving – will have to wait to find out whether she will be stripped of her badge, a tribunal has heard.

Detective Senior Constable Naomi C’Ann Shearer, who has been in the Queensland Police Service since 2003, had her case referred to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal by the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The CCC asked the tribunal to find Shearer acted corruptly on July 27, 2016, when retired Victorian police officer Kevin Anthony Perry was allowed to drive off without a test.

The CCC referred the case to QCAT after it rejected a QPS proposal to reduce Const. Shearer’s pay by 0.3 pay points to 2.5 pay points for a year.

The CCC argued the pay cut was wholly inadequate, would not deter other officers from acting corruptly and did not reflect community standards.

It argued in the tribunal that footage of the interaction with Perry taken from body worn cameras and interviews with police colleagues proved Constable Shearer acted corruptly outside the Alexandra Headland Surf Lifesaving Club in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast when she was called to help two uniformed officers who had pulled over Perry for making an illegal U-turn at about 8.30pm.

Detective Senior Constable Naomi C’Ann Shearer (right)

Perry told officers he had consumed two glassed of wine at the surf club before getting in his hire car and told the two officers: “I’m a sergeant of Vic police. Can you let me go?”

In her decision handed down on June 15, QCAT member Ann Fitzpatrick found that the single allegation of corruption – which was not contested by Sen Constable Shearer – was proved.

The CCC submitted that this single corruption finding was a reasonable ground to sack Const Shearer.

However both the CCC and Shearer have agreed the sanction imposed on Sen Constable Shearer should be decided later after further submissions are made to the tribunal.

In her 16-page decision Ms Fitzpatrick ruled in favour of Sen Constable Shearer on two other disciplinary charges of corrupt conduct.

She found the evidence did not support the conclusion that Sen Constable Shearer lied in two statements to police disciplinary officer Inspector Mike Miley on August 2, 2016 and did not support the conclusion that her two statements constituted corrupt conduct.

The CCC unsuccessfully submitted to the QCAT that Sen Constable Shearer lied in a bid to avoid accountability for her actions when she told Insp. Miley that her intent was not to give advice or tell the more junior officer what she should do or shouldn’t do in regard to breath testing Perry.

Ms Fitzpatrick also found the CCC failed to prove that Sen Constable Shearer lied a second time to Insp. Miley in her disciplinary interview when she told him the “only advice” she gave officers was to move Perry’s white Nissan Tiida hire car so it would be in a safe area.

Detective Senior Constable Naomi C’Ann Shearer (centre)

The CCC tried to argue that Sen Constable Shearer advised her uniformed colleagues not to breath test Perry, but Ms Fitzpatrick found the evidence did not support the CCC’s conclusion and the CCC’s argument was a leap in logic and flawed logic.

“I do not think there is any evidence of the giving of advice not to administer a breath test,” Ms Fitzpatrick says in her decision.

Ms Fitzpatrick found that Sen Constable Shearer made it plain that the decision to breathalyse or not was a matter for the two uniformed police officers who pulled Perry over after the U-turn.

Ms Fitzpatrick also found that the evidence could infer that one of the uniformed police officers present that night failed in her duty to breath-test Perry and claimed she had been intimidated by Sen Constable Shearer in a bid to relieve herself of responsibility.

Ms Fizpatrick found the second uniformed officer had also deflected all responsibility for not performing the breath test entirely to Sen Constable Shearer and the other uniformed officer.

Sen Constable Shearer worked in the Child Protection Investigation Unit at Nambour when she was called to assist the two uniformed officers who had pulled over Perry.

On December 5, 2018, Shearer pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to a charge of refusing to perform her duty as a public officer over the Perry incident, after prosecutors dropped a more serious charge of misconduct in public office by doing an act in abuse of authority.

She was fined $2000 with no conviction recorded.

No date has been set for the hearing to decide the penalty.