Two detectives have been charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice after they attempted to prosecute an army reservist who fled a police road stop he thought was a late-night carjacking.
Victoria Police alleged in a statement on Wednesday that the detective senior constables made false statements about an attempted intercept in Longwarry, south-east of Melbourne, in June 2020.
The charges follow inquiries from The Age about the conduct of the officers. Last April, this masthead revealed the pair were arrested over allegations they maliciously prosecuted a man after he was charged with endangering an officer’s safety at a regional service station.
Following questions from The Age about the officers’ account that the man had driven off with a policeman’s arm and torso still inside his car, properties connected to the two officers were raided.
Tony, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, told The Age he intended to sue the force over the incident after CCTV challenged the officers’ stories and did not show police inside his vehicle.
Police said a 32-year-old detective had now been charged with misconduct in public office, attempting to pervert the course of justice and six counts of perjury.
The other detective, also aged 32, has been charged with three counts of misconduct in public office, perjury and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Tony said last year that he was travelling along the Princes Highway between Drouin and Longwarry when he noticed headlights approaching from behind at 3.30am.
As the Drouin man pulled over near a service station, where he intended to buy cigarettes, two senior constables out on patrol in a marked divisional van pulled up alongside his right rear taillight.
Unaware the headlights belonged to a police car, Tony said he locked eyes with a man in a dark-coloured beanie before driving away, fearing he was about to be carjacked.
After he fled, Tony crashed into a ditch and said he walked and then hitchhiked home to get help to recover his vehicle, but when he returned the vehicle was gone.
The following day, Tony, aged in his 40s, called the local police station in an attempt to track down the white 1998 B-Class Mercedes.
Court documents show that hours later, he was arrested and charged with risking the safety of an emergency service worker.
In their signed statements and brief of evidence submitted to court in 2020, the two officers alleged that as the driver of the white Mercedes pulled into the service station, they activated their lights and sirens before one of the officers – who was wearing a beanie at the time – jumped from their divisional van.
The officers alleged one of them then opened the door of the Mercedes and leant inside to remove the driver’s keys. Tony, they alleged, then drove off with the officer’s arm and torso still inside.
The officer signed a statement that alleged he feared for his life during the brief encounter.
But serious discrepancies in the officers’ account emerged from service station CCTV footage.
“I just didn’t get the door quite open,” one officer is heard saying on CCTV captured inside the service station after the incident. “He didn’t know we were there.”
In his police interview seen by The Age, and conducted by the two officers involved in the incident, Tony maintained he was unaware the other vehicle was a police car and did not see red and blue police lights flashing. He also denied hearing any verbal commands to pull over or that the door of his Mercedes was opened.
While the more serious charges laid against Tony were later dropped in court, the army reservist of 20 years pleaded guilty to careless driving and hitchhiking – which occurred soon after his interaction with the police – and was fined $500 without conviction.
Tony said he’d always respected law enforcement and was working alongside police on a 24-hour roster as part of the state’s COVID-19 response when his arrest occurred. But he said he now feared police.
Both officers will appear before court at a later date.
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