Doomadgee investigation officers want police chief, CMC boss excluded from case

TWO Queensland police officers named adversely over the botched Mulrunji Doomadgee death in custody investigations have applied for court orders.

TWO Queensland police officers named adversely over the botched Mulrunji Doomadgee death in custody investigations have applied for court orders against Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson and Crime and Misconduct Commission boss Martin Moynihan.

An application for injunctions was filed today on behalf of detectives Raymond Kitching and Darren Robinson, who were members of the original investigative team deployed after Doomadgee died in the Palm Island lockup in 2004.

Their lawyers are seeking to have Mr Atkinson disqualified from further involvement in the affair because of a conflict of interest, and for Mr Moynihan to step aside and have no further dealings with the case.

They will argue that the “arbitrary” 14-day deadline set by the CMC for Mr Atkinson to act on its recommendations was unreasonable and unilaterally imposed. At issue is comments made to the media yesterday by the police commissioner and Mr Moynihan.

Mr Atkinson had “created a situation where your personal interests are now irreconcilably and incurably conflicted with your professional duties,” the Byrne Legal Group said in a letter to him, flagging the Supreme Court action.

And in “rushing to judgment inside two weeks” Mr Moynihan was warned he had hopelessly compromised Mr Atkinson and prejudiced the interests of the two detectives.

The CMC issued a statement saying the application was the result of a misunderstanding of the situation by the legal team for detectives Kitching and Robinson.

“The suggestion appears to be that the CMC is asking for the Commissioner of Police to personally make a decision, and report back about the disciplinary action he has taken within 14 days,” the agency said in a statement.

“This is incorrect. We have asked the Commissioner of Police to report back to the CMC in 14 days about his intended course of action.”

However, this appears at odds with a statement made yesterday by Mr Moynihan that if the CMC was not satisfied with Mr Atkinson's intended course of action, it would take over and apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to commence disciplinary proceedings against the named police.