The Snitch: Top DPP prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC takes extended leave
In The Snitch this week: Which vital cog in the DPP is off on long service leave for eight months? And what was the bizarre fight behind former The Block contestant Suzi Taylor’s latest arrest?
NSW
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As if the budget dramas at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions weren’t biting hard enough, now news has dropped that the state’s top prosecutor will not be working until August.
The DPP’s senior crown prosecutor, Chris Maxwell QC, told staff on December 11 that he would be taking long service leave, which would see him out of the office for eight months. Mr Maxwell has worked hard for the state and is entitled to take his leave, but his absence, coupled with the recent savage cuts to the ODPP, life is going to be tough for the remaining prosecutors.
The barrister is well known for specialising in the state’s highest profile and most complex murder cases.
“Before the year comes to a close I wanted to express my enormous appreciation for the work you have all done this year,” Mr Maxwell wrote in an email to staff.
“During the second half we experienced significant budget cuts, which impacted on all of you.
“I know how much pressure you have been under and admire greatly your performance.”
Then came the bad news.
“Can I also take this opportunity to let you know I will be taking my outstanding long service leave from the start of first term in 2020.
“This will mean I will not return to the office until 10 August, 2020,” he wrote.
“Because of the esteem which I have for this position I have the honour to occupy, it has not been an easy decision for me to make.”
Mr Maxwell concluded the email by writing that DPP Lloyd Babb SC would email staff with news about who would be acting in the position in his absence.
Anyhoo, toodles.
IT’S ALL IN THE JEANS
A tiff over “who looked better in a pair of jeans” led to controversial ex-reality TV star Suzi Taylor being arrested and booted out of her Gold Coast bail address.
Taylor, 49, was on bail for allegedly extorting and assaulting a Tinder date, but was rearrested after a disturbance at her cousin’s Currumbin home, where she was living as part of strict bail Supreme Court conditions.
Wearing a tight green mini-dress, a dishevelled-looking Taylor — a former Penthouse centrefold and contestant on The Block — yesterday faced Southport Magistrates Court where she pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching bail.
Defence lawyer Michael Gatenby told the court Taylor’s cousin became jealous over who looked better in a pair of jeans, and “ratted” on Taylor about not staying at her bail address. “She (the cousin) told police she hadn’t lived there for some time,” Mr Gatenby told the court.
Magistrate Pamela Dowse fined Taylor $300 but did not record a conviction.
Taylor told waiting media she had “lost a little bit of weight in prison so … needed a new pair of jeans”. Enough said.
COCAINE KING’S LEGAL NOUS
Having spent nine years in jail, you’d think Richard Buttrose wouldn’t want anything to do with the legal system. But then again, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
The nephew of media powerhouse Ita Buttrose claimed his first triumph at the bar table this week in a David-and-Goliath-style battle in the Land and Environment Court.
Buttrose represented fellow Vaucluse resident Bruce Davidson in a neighbourhood dispute with new kid on the block, property developer Jianqiu Zhang.
Mr Zhang, who paid $5.28 million for his Dalley Ave home in 2014, went to the Land and Environment Court to seek orders that Mr Davidson trim his trees continuously.
Given a covenant could affect the property value if Mr Davidson wanted to sell, he was up for a fight.
Buttrose, who was jailed in 2010 for supplying cocaine around the eastern suburbs, reckoned he had a reasonable grasp of the law so took up the legal mantle.
“I was teaching myself how to do it along the way. I think I wanted to win more than my client did and Bruce really wanted to win,” he said.
On Friday, the court dismissed Mr Zhang’s application.
Buttrose, who finishes parole later this year, is claiming the win as one for the “little guy” — just don’t call him a lawyer.
“I don’t pretend to be. I’m a legal advocate who acts as an agent,” he said.
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