A police officer has fought a drink driving case for four years at the police union’s expense
A police officer who has fought a drink driving charge for four years, claims he has amnesia about the incident, in which he drove his car off a cliff and landed upside down in shallow water metres below.
Law & Order
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EXCLUSIVE: Police officer Daniel Sciore was off duty when in the middle of a winter night he drove his car off a cliff.
Sciore had been drinking with friends that night and it is alleged that at 1.53am on June 28, 2014, he plunged his Holden Commodore station wagon 14 metres into a shallow pond in a disused quarry in the outer eastern suburb of Chirnside Park.
His car nosedived toward the water, landing on its nose and roof. The impact caved the roof in as water filled into the partly submerged car.
For hours, Sen Const Sciore sat in his upturned car, in water, in pain, and trapped.
He could have been stuck their until past daybreak had it not been for two observant paramedics driving by the disused quarry along Maroondah Hwy at 3.23am, noticing hazard lights blinking in the distance.
They climbed through a hole in the fence of the vacant block to get to the car and, using a Dolphin torch, shone it inside.
Paramedic Andrew Turner beamed his light at Sciore, his clothes wet and sitting on the ceiling of the car.
In a case that has dragged on for four years, the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court heard in 2017 that Sciore told the paramedics he had been drinking with mates in Warrandyte, he was sore, and that he was a police officer.
“He wasn’t sure how he had ended up upside down in the car,’’ Mr Turner said
“He believed he’d been there for about an hour and was unaware how he got there.
“Before we removed him (from the car) he said he’d been drinking with friends …
“He said he had driven from Warrandyte.
They called the job in, and the cavalry arrived.
While CFA and SES worked to get Sen Const Sciore free by forcing a rear door open, police began monitoring the scene, some of the officers immediately aware Sciore was one of their own.
Once extracted from his car Sciore was placed onto a spinal board and put into the ambulance.
Mr Turner testified there was no obvious smell of alcohol as they took him to the Alfred Hospital.
But Sciore began to talk a little more.
Mr Turner testified that he began changing his story.
“En route to the Alfred he stated he was not the driver and that other people were in the vehicle,’’ he said.
This was the first time Sciore had mentioned anyone else had been in the car.
Back at the scene, police had been checking for anyone else who could have been involved in the collision.
There wasn’t.
Under cross examination Mr Turner said it was possible Sciore had been trapped in the car, with its roof crushed inward, for hours.
A paramedic gave evidence that Sciore at first was not too talkative as they spoke to him from outside the car.
“He was not forthcoming. He told us he was a police officer. We thought it might go further.’’
It did go further.
Sergeant Richard Higgins, known as Roy, arrived at the crash scene and took charge after responding to the D24 call out.
He had known Sciore for years, testifying in court that the injured fellow officer had said, “Roy, I’m glad you’re here. My f … ing back is killing me.”
Sgt Higgins replied: “I’m glad you’re alive”.
He offered to call his wife but Sen Const. Sciore wanted to phone her himself later.
As he was carried to the ambulance, Sciore told his senior officer “Sorry Roy, I’ve had a few but I’m OK.”
When Sciore was admitted to the Alfred Hospital a blood sample was taken for police purposes. It returned a reading of .197 - almost four times the legal limit.
Sciore was discharged from hospital and later refused to be interviewed by police about the incident.
Sciore’s lawyer told court his client had “amnesia” about what occurred that night.
Victoria Police suspended Sciore and, aware the case was likely to be contested, began a full investigation.
On the morning of the incident photos were taken of the scene and days later hours of CCTV from a school security camera retrieved.
They were reviewed over days to find the station wagon and the time it was travelling along Old Melbourne Road seconds before driving off the retaining wall.
The force even deployed the search and rescue squad to conduct a line search of the “pond” to check for bottles or any other evidence below the surface.
He would be charged with three driving offences and his career in jeopardy. Sciore was facing a huge legal bill to fight the case.
Enter the Police Association of Victoria.
In a case that cost them an estimated $150,000.
The reasoning behind why a union would fund a case in which an off-duty cop was caught drunk behind the wheel is unclear.
The police union do not pay to defend police officers, particularly off duty, charged with drink driving unless there are exceptional circumstances.
It is understood Sen Const Sciore’s application was rejected, appealed, and then funded.
The Sunday Herald Sun has been told the funding of Sciore’s case caused concern within the union and how its members would perceive it.
With two lawyers well prepared acting for him, the costs tipped the six figure range by the time he was found guilty by a magistrate in 2017.
His defence, by specialist in drink driving matters Wawrick Walsh-Buckley, has revolved around a few key points.
A point the experienced barrister has laboured is time.
Can the prosecution prove what Sciore’s blood alcohol content was when the car drove off the cliff?
Furthermore, hours of the hearing was taken up watching small screens showing cars driving at night along Old Melbourne Road to depict the shape of the cars and their trajectory.
The accuracy of GPS time on mobile phones and computers in hospital emergency wards also contested by the defence and even whether the blood, taken by a surgeon at the Alfred, is that of Sciore.
Importantly, if the blood sample was not taken within three hours of the incident, two of the three charges could have been be dropped.
At the back of the court an acting Superintendent took notes.
Sciore will now be put before a police disciplinary hearing.
And unlike the court, they will demand he give answers.
Sciore was convicted and sentenced by a magistrate to 19 month loss of licence and fined.
He appealed the conviction and sentence before pleading guilty last week.
Sciore, however, is still appealing the sentence.