CCC fails in bid to protect identity of police involved in breath-test scandal

The state’s anti-crime watchdog has failed in a bid to keep secret the names and penalties given to three cops involved in a breath-test scandal, which resulted in a corruption finding against another.

The state’s anti-crime watchdog has failed in its bid to keep the identities and punishments given to three cops involved in a breath-test scandal, which resulted in a corruption finding against a fourth colleague, a secret.

In a decision handed down by Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member Ann Fitzpatrick on November 19 and published online on Friday, Ms Fitzpatrick declined a bid to suppress the names of Senior Constable Leanne Joy Blunt, Constable Melissa Walsh and Senior Constable Rohan Peter Evans and the details of their internal police punishments.

The hearing was told Detective Senior Constable Naomi Shearer discouraged her colleague from testing the interstate officer. Picture: 7 News

The request to keep the names and punishments secret was made by the Crime and Corruption Commission and by lawyers for their senior colleague, Sunshine Coast Detective Senior Constable Naomi C’Ann Shearer.

Shearer was previously found to have corruptly caused Blunt and Walsh to not breath-test a retired interstate police officer who had been drinking wine before driving.

The pair pulled over ex-Victorian police officer Kevin Anthony Perry for making an illegal U-turn at about 8.30pm

Perry told the pair he had consumed two glasses of wine at the Alexandra Headland Surf Lifesaving Club in Mooloolaba before getting in his hire car and told the two officers: “I’m a sergeant of Vic police. Can you let me go?”

Perry flashed his police identity card that he was allowed to keep after he retired in 2013.

Shearer worked in the Child Protection Investigation Unit at Nambour and had an unblemished record when she and colleague Senior Constable Rohan Peter Evans were called to assist uniformed officers Blunt and Walsh who had pulled over Perry.

Ms Fitzpatrick concluded that Senior Constable Blunt decided not to breathalyse Perry, and it was Ms Shearer’s obligation to ensure that the breath test occurred.

Instead Ms Shearer counselled Blunt and Walsh not to disclose the failure to test Perry to superiors in what was described as an “ill-considered comment to a colleague”.

“He’s not going to tell anyone. He’s not going to tell a f---ing soul,” Shearer said of Perry after Snr Const Leanne Blunt asked Shearer – as shown on body-worn camera footage – “But what about if he brags?”

“He pulled his badge on me and said ‘I’m a sergeant of Vic police. Can you let me go?’,” junior officer Constable Melissa Walsh told Shearer in the body worn footage.

Detective Senior Constable Naomi Shearer. Photo: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

Ms Shearer, now 54, joined the Queensland Police Service in 2003 and resigned from the service on November 10, 2021.

She told the tribunal she suffers from an incurable blood cancer and works from home for Uniting Care Australia as a group facilitator/counsellor for a men’s behaviour change program for domestic and family violence offenders.

“I consider that work to be worthy and an indicator of good character,” Ms Fitzpatrick concluded.

Ms Fitzpatrick previously ruled on June 15, 2021, that Ms Shearer engaged in corrupt conduct on July 27, 2016 when she caused a breath test not to be conducted in respect of Perry.

No corruption findings were made against the other three officers.

Ms Shearer did not contest the corruption allegation and was found to have “honestly acknowledged her role in the events on 28 July 2016”.

The CCC and Ms Shearer’s lawyers had sought a non-publication order over the identity of Blunt, Walsh and Evans and details of the police force’s disciplinary action, which Ms Fitzpatrick refused.

“The making of a non-publication order is not to be given lightly or because it might be helpful to a person,” Ms Fitzpatrick ruled.

The CCC unsuccessfully argued the suppression of one officer’s identity would avoid endangering their mental health.

“One can understand that the officer would rather not have the conduct in question re-examined or discussed in public, given the officer’s current circumstances,” Ms Fitzpatrick stated in her decision.

“However, that horse has bolted. It is not possible at this stage to prohibit publication of the officer’s name in relation to the conduct which occurred during the incident,” she said.

“I do not consider that the public interest is served by preventing publication of relevant evidence in this matter when set against the public interest in open justice, which in my view is heightened in matters of police conduct,” Ms Fitzpatrick stated in her decision.

Snr Const. Leanne Joy Blunt received a pay cut for nine months and was ordered to do 30 hours of community service at Sunshine Coast Qld Police Citizen’s Youth Club in the “Break the Cycle” program and online training, the QCAT decision states.

Const Walsh, received a disciplinary outcome of managerial guidance. She quit her job with the QPS before this was imposed.

Snr Const. Evans, who was working alongside Shearer that night, received a pay cut for a year on condition he complete 30 hours of community service.

Ms Fitzpatrick ruled it was not appropriate for Ms Shearer to be “singled out for a disciplinary sanction more severe than that imposed on the other officers”.

She concluded that “the failures” in dealing with Perry were “collective failures” and Ms Shearer had not realised she was the senior officer with responsibility for the Perry breath test.

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.

Originally published as CCC fails in bid to protect identity of police involved in breath-test scandal