The Snitch: Will NRL star Josh Reynold tackle the cops over DV case?
With police set to drop an assault charge against Josh Reynolds, the question has now turned to whether the NRL star will sue the police for damages.
NSW
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NRL star Josh Reynolds will soon have an assault charge against him officially dropped.
He can either walk away feeling vindicated that he’s no longer accused of assaulting his ex Arabella Del Busso, as several claims emerged that she was a con artist who faked being pregnant to Reynolds.
Or he could launch a civil suit against the cops for dragging him through the process on evidence, that his legal team argued, was flimsy at best.
Police charged Reynolds on December 11 with assaulting Del Busso at his home in Caringbah South. The incident was alleged to have occurred on September 12.
When the matter appeared in Sutherland Local Court last month, prosecutors told the court the matter would be discontinued because of a lack of evidence, with the charges to be officially withdrawn on April 27.
That’s five months after he was charged.
Within two days of Reynolds being charged, people claiming to have been ripped off by Del Busso were contacting his lawyer Daniel McGirr, who passed the information on to police.
Other possible problems for the cops include that Reynolds was placed in a dock at the police station and that a third party witness — in the form of a mutual friend of the ex-couple — gave a 10-page statement to police that night painting Del Busso as a liar. Stay tuned.
CRACKING THE CODE
We’re hearing murmurs that a criminal lawyer could be in some serious trouble.
The whispers are that police have cracked an encrypted BlackBerry, putting the lawyer in the crosshairs of either police — and thus face charges — or the NSW Law Society which may revoke the lawyer’s licence — or both.
The phone belonged to an accused crook and apparently shows that the lawyer instructed them in a message on how to dispose of evidence.
BlackBerry phones are a favourite among the criminal world because the messaging system is encrypted, meaning police can’t intercept the communications and use them as evidence.
But in this instance, police have gotten hold of a chain of messages between the accused crook and the lawyer from the BlackBerry.
BlackBerry accounts are registered under user names, which are usually chosen so they disguise the actual identity of the user.
But in this case, we’re told the lawyer included their work email in an earlier message. Whoops.
COURTROOM JOUSTING
There’s no lonelier place than the courtroom witness box when a clever lawyer gets a sniff of blood in the water.
Just ask Professional Standards cop Jonathon Foster, who was an investigator on the case of ex-cop Joel Murchie who, on Friday, was acquitted of assaulting a colleague.
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Earlier in the case, Foster, who wasn’t facing any charges, was in the witness box giving evidence when Murchie’s lawyer, Paul McGirr, zeroed in on whether the officer had not recorded times and dates of speaking to witnesses in his statement.
Mr McGirr asked: “That’s a major oversight in your investigation, isn’t it?”.
Mr Foster disagreed: “I understand the point you’re making, but I don’t believe it’s
an oversight.”
And so the probing of the point began and continued with the intensity of a hoarder going after a roll of toilet paper.
It continued until Mr Foster made the following admission: “Sitting here now, I agree it’s an oversight, yes.”
Got a snitch? Contact Ava.benny-morrison@news.com.au or Brenden.hills@news.com.au