Monday, January 31, 2011

HousingSA. Police Prosecutors. Special Needs tenants. Fiction V Reality


SCENARIO.


As reported in my previous Post, in support of my friend, I fronted up to Holden Hill Magistrate’s Court last week. Pre-Trial conference (PTC).

Courts are clogged. Any day of the week, click through to the Cases List on the http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/ web site. Particularly the suburban courts.

Looking at the array of charges, I wonder why they actually get to court, get past the PTCs. After all, is that not the purpose of the PTC?

To prevent the pipes from becoming clogged up? “Hey, Mister Prosecutor, I am guilty, can we make this quick? Sorry for what I did. Won't do it again.”

And, why so many adjournments? Having supported many poor bewlidered souls, first time Courtees, all on the Legal Aid hurdy gurdy, I have wondered about that...why all the adjournments! Why did her lawyer ask for so many adjournments?

How does it work behind the scenes? Lawyer, one appearance. Lawyer, one fee? Second appearance...

My friend has no legal representation. However, the issue is straightforward. A neighbour dispute. No violence. Just a lot of bluster between two HousingSA tenants.

With the PTC drawing closer, on her behalf, I wrote to the Prosecution Branch, Holden Hill Police Station. We only wanted an appointment prior to the PTC. Why?

FICTION

Our request was in accordance with the advice below. Llifted off the Courts administration web site. The interesting bit begins with; ‘...Prior to the PTC...’

Information about PTCs for self-represented litigants.


What is a PTC?


The Magistrates Court Rules require parties to proceedings to be ready to proceed to trial by the date of the hearing at which a trial date is set. Once a trial date has been fixed it will not be postponed unless there are very good reasons


Rule 8 and Rule 26 set out what is meant to happen before a matter is listed for trial.


This should be complied with as much as possible before the PTC.


Why has your matter been listed for a PTC?


To make sure that parties have complied with this rule and are ready for a trial date to be set, you are required to attend a PTC to find out:-


· Can the matter be sorted out without a trial; and


· Sort out what evidence will need to be given, whether some of the evidence can be agreed and other matters to make the progress of the trial easier; and


· If a trial is needed, find out how long the trial will take and set a date that is convenient to the parties and witnesses.


How long will the PTC take?


A PTC will usually take between 5 and 20 minutes.


What am I required to do or bring?


Prior to the PTC you should make contact with the prosecution unit to discuss the issues fully and frankly. Their contact details should be on the court documents that were given to you.


Examples of the sort of thing that should be discussed with the prosecution before the PTC date so that the prosecution can consider it before the PTC:-


· any evidence of alibi (you could not have committed the offence because you were somewhere else at the time);


· any documents which may assist your defence;


· tell them your version of the events, including what witnesses you have and what you think that they will say


The Magistrate will need the co-operation of both parties to attempt to resolve your matter.


You must attend the PTC. If you do not attend either personally or by a solicitor you may be found guilty and a penalty imposed in your absence.


If you are on Bail you must attend or a warrant may be issued for your arrest.


Your witnesses do not need to come to the PTC.

http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/community/going_to_court/index.html


REALITY

As Meatloaf said by the Dashboard Light...stop right there!

First up, my friend was and remains under the impression she has no representation. I agreed with that when I read the letter from the Legal Aid-financed law firm's Finance Manager that clearly stated, some months ago, that unless a payment was made immediately to their office...adios amigo!

That was why, I thought, I was doing the right thing, by the book, writing to the Prosecutor seeking an appointment. Then having not heard back, I telephoned. THAT one-way conversation was a hint of things to come!

Waiting outside Courtroom 2, last week, my friend was approached by, presumably, a lawyer. Now known, by us, as a lawyer from the firm that sent the ‘Dear John’ letter last year.

I was only a few feet away when he approached. However, It became evident I was but an apparition. I must have been as he was transmitting messages to me, via her.

According to Mr Lawyer, my letter, and my 'we-have-not-heard-from-you' telephone call, both to the Prosecutor, had PISSED HER OFF! I was not to approach her, the Prosecutor, ever again. Admittedly, I had a foreboding of this when she zoomed past us earlier, despite her saying she would come speak with us prior to the 2.15pm death march. Admittedly, we could have been hard to notice. We were the only ones there, bar some other poor bugger a distance away.

In my very, very, very best irish-english, I laid out the story from my friend’s viewpoint, and asked for an appointment. That is all we wanted. An appointment. A conversation. We were simply following the Courts Authority directions.

Besides, the defendant was and still is INNOCENT!

The Magistrate’s Court web site says: '...you should make contact with the prosecution unit to discuss the issues fully and frankly...'

I was confused. When I spoke to the Prosecutor a few days before, she had no idea what I was on about with regard to the Court web site. The extract above. I kept referring to it. I think she became annoyed.

She had no time for me. It was one of those conversations when you know you would have more chance strking up a two-way with a Mongolian Yak complete with a lisp. She took a couple of breaths between long, repetitive sentences, sentences about how I cannot represent someone. I got sick to death of saying that all I did was write a bloody letter seeking to tee up an appointment for the still-innocent defendant.

Anyway, this lawyer, who appeared out of somewhere, waltzed away, spoke with the Prosecutor, reappeared a few minutes later, and declared the matter would proceed to trial, in May. When my friend, the mother of my gorgeous granddaughter told him a couple of salient facts, I heard him say; "I didnt know that!"

Poor Mrs X was then called in to the Courtroom, reappearing a few moments later.

‘Rob. I don’t know what happened. That lawyer said nothing. I was handed a slip and told to return in May for a trial”.

So, let me see if I have this one worked out.

Someone, anyone (in this case, a HousingSA special-needs tenant), can call the police, say that you shouted and raised your fist, you get arrested, taken to a faraway station, you get charged, albeit months later, you go through various adjournments and you don’t know why, the lawyers drop you, you do as directed by Courts, the prosecutor doesn’t want to know you, and then you’re off to trial!

WHAT THE HELL?

Is it any wonder disadvantaged people out there are disillusioned, pissed off and getting crankier by the day?

Minister Rankine. Your people have known about the troubles caused by this group of special-needs tenants for a very, very, very long time.

Your ‘inability’ to nip these now festering issues in the buds has created this mess, a mess for a ‘good tenant’ who has only ever wanted one thing...fore the idiots in the street to leave...her...alone!

Going to Court is a bloody trauma. This young mother is consumed by stress, by worry, and by total bewilderment.

Hell, so am I!

Where to from here? Well, I have spoken with a lawyer. I have spoken with Legal Aid. I have spoken with Courts administration. I have spoken with the police. And we now have one for the books...we all agree. Well, except for the one that matters...the Prosecutor.

More hours of time involving so many people. When all the Prosecutor had to do was abide by what the Courts administration tells the rest of us to do.

Mister Attorney-General. Mr Rau. YOU ARE the local member for this young mum. You need to step up to the plate and, as I have asked you to do before...sprinkle some common sense over it.

I am quite certain the battle-weary, factory production line Judges have had a gutful. Can we not see to it that the system everyone talks about is at least followed by the very people we pay to protect the community?

Oh. A small, fleeting thought. I can but wonder how that lawyer would have behaved had I been in my old Attorney-General's Department business suit, and my friend in her sunday best.  Just a passing thought, yeah, I could be wrong...

Friday, January 28, 2011

HousingSA: When is a complaint NOT a complaint? Then there is the police!



I remember arriving in Geelong, March of 1972. We had fled the nonsense that was going on in Belfast, referred to as The Troubles. I was 17 and we had, until then, known nothing different from council estates, public rental housing.

Within weeks, we had a Housing Commission place. Suburb called Corio. A three-bedroom house on a corner block. And it wasn’t bad, though; hot weather was a bit of a challenge. Then, I discovered the great Aussie pub. That’s another story for another day.

Early 1977 I moved across to Adelaide.

A few months ago, I decided to act as a proxy for a HousingSA tenant. She is the mother of our first grandchild, a wee girl with her first birthday next month.

They live in Kilburn. They are literally ringed by three high-needs HousingSA tenants. One, a male, I have posted about previously. He terrorises the street children. He speaks crap, lifts his shirt to expose his nipples, which he then plays with, and does all other sorts of stuff that are just.... not on!

Many mornings from the hour of 4am, another tenant is full-on with her equally challenged son. Screaming obscenities at one another. Objects being bounced off the adjoining wall.

The lady across the road. Even I have made the mistake of making eye contact, albeit ever so innocently. You cop an earful.

And, you do your absolute best to...not engage. Huge ask as the days turn to weeks turn to months.

Incessant.

And please, let me acknowledge the other tenant stories out there that make these issues look like a picnic.

Two things I want to share.

I have discovered that lodging complaints with HousingSA can be, let me see, quite challenging?

Recently, as the proxy, I called HousingSA Modbury to report a serious incident involving the adjoining neighbour. I took the opportunity to raise a discussion about Mr Nippleman, a man who needs to be off the street and away from the children. In my opinion, your Honour.

HousingSA turned the conversation around to a logged complaint made against my lovely granddaughter’s mother concerning the tidiness of her front garden.

Having worked for the government for many years, as an I.T. Consultant, having worked within the Attorney-General’s department for eight years, and having worked closely with three Ministers a very long time ago, I thought I knew how most things worked. Yeah. Right!

Here is the 'untidy' garden in question. Now the fun bit. I called HousingSA.




The first person I spoke to said that the officer investigating the complaint would call me back that afternoon. Nope. No show. I gave it a week, then I called back. I spoke with that officer, person number two, thee 'investigator'. She knew NOTHING about an untidy garden complaint. Later, I called another officer, and she did know of a complaint. Wait for it....ready? The next person I spoke with said there was no such complaint in the system!

I thought it was only booze that rotated rooms.

And, I guess, to really annoy me, the officer refused to take my complaint.Why? Well, I had the full name of the tenant, the fact she lives right across the road, and the Googled geospacial co-ordinates of the house.

BUT, I could not supply the actual house number. Hmmmmm....database queries don't work at HousingSA?

To a more serious issue. After months of random abuse from the special-needs tenantess across the road. After months of occasionally coming home to find the outside water tap full-on. After months of my granddaughter being awoken from her Teletubbies sleep by the screaming of obscenities outside the front door. The good tenant had had a gutful, and screamed back!

That was May of last year. The police arrived a couple of months later and arrested the good tenant. She was charged with common assault, raising a fist. Taken to Holden Hill, interviewed, then left to find her own way home to Kilburn.

We will be at Holden Hill Court this afternoon for a pre-trial conference, with, no doubt, the tenantess from across the road, who insisted on the good tenant being charged. (UPDATE: The tenantess from hell did not front up).

Hopefully, I do not need to tell you what is wrong with this picture.

My best advice to my lovely granddaughter's mother? If the Prosecutor is intent on pursuing this madness, and the Judge goes along with it (UPDATE: Going to Trial), we will trot around the corner to Holden Hill Police Station to lodge a list of complaints against this person.

NEVER, outside of Belfast, have I experienced such bloody lunacy!

HousingSA has known about these problem high-needs tenants for quite some time. In fact, a bloody long time. The Police, is well aware of Mister Nippleman. And, I have lodged a detailed submission to Holden Hill police concerning the street.

The department’s inability to sort these issues out, nip them in the bud before they turn into a festering cesspit, is plainly obvious for all to see.

This good tenant, the mother of my beautiful granddaughter, is stressed out beyond belief. All she desires is for the idiots to leave...her...alone!

So, when is a complaint maybe not a complaint? I guess it depends if you are the goodie or the baddie.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Law. Legal Aid. Lawyers. Cracks in the floor.

You're broke. You've been wronged.

Of course, your sense of ‘being wronged’ is purely subjective, particularly in the eyes of the law.

Your first mistake may be watching way too many television shows where everything is wrapped up neatly in 50 minutes.

No one believes you, but you have a lawyer who bestrides a white horse brandishing a lance that surgically strikes at the heart of the matter.

The good guys win, the baddies lose!

Reality? Sometimes, but rarely often.

South Australia? Think Gilchrist!

Here in South Australia, we have sat in our lounges watching significant legal cases unfold across many weeks, even months on our local news channels.

We marvel at the wizardry of a Queen’s Counsel, as he or she fronts the cameras to explain to the masses how that quirk in the law was used to bring victory to, sometimes, the bad guy.

There’s your Don Quixote. There’s that one you want to sit down with and say; “Mate, I’m broke, I’m honest, and I’ve been shafted!”

Yeah, right!

Under-resourced and under-funded Legal Aid is a factory line for churning out ‘NO’ letters. Hell, you need to be under a real threat of a jail term to squeeze blood from that stone.

Community Legal Centres. Ever seen the same lawyer twice?

And how many times are we confronted by headlines screaming out that some clown has gotten off scot free on a bloody technicality!

In Adelaide recently, two things have unfolded right beneath my snout.

Again I'm stomping the streets looking for a lawyer with ‘front’, a lawyer who will say to me; “Mate, I believe you. And if we let the Government off the hook, how many others will suffer as their civil liberties are stomped on.”

And there is the case of my mate John who was in court last Thursday. I will get to that in a moment.

Of course, I am not stupid enough to suggest carte-blanche day on  lawyers and a full assault on pro-bono services. Pro-bono? Yeah, good luck with that one!

What I am highlighting are the glaring cracks in the floorboards that people fall through every, single day of the week.

In civil issues, we are buggered. Unless you got money, that is.

We don't have the connections to get us through to the Michael Abbotts or the Marie Shaws of this world.

I have been living on the skin of my arse since my had-to departure from the Attorney-General’s department back in 2008.

Over the years, I doubt there is a firm I have not telephoned or not written to with my grievances.

Some actually do get back to you, albeit the receptionist. Most do not even have the courtesy of a return anything.

You see, NO MONEY

Some excuses concern me. “I am sorry Mr McKibbin, but we are on a list of possible providers of legal services to the South Australian government. It would be a conflict of interest”.

Of course, as I discovered, some of those firms had NEVER actually provided such legal services. I can only imagine why some government agencies have so many names on a leashed list.

Anyway, I'm not bagging the profession as a whole. What I am saying is that unless you are charged with a serious crime, unless you have the right connections, unless you have money, and lots of it, you, my friend, simply fall through the cracks.

Justice IS NOT available to all.

Oh. And don’t do what I did recently. DO NOT waste time representing yourself. That highly skilled practitioner of the legal profession, the one to your right, he will crucify you.

They have no feelings for you. Though, personally they might feel sorry for you. However, at the end of the day, they take instructions. Hell, they won't even get in the same elevator as you. It's a whole different world within a world.

And, as in various cases during my years as a whistleblower, those instructions will be to ensure a win irrespective of ethics, of morals, of truth.

Last Thursday, Holden Hill Court House, I supported Adelaide invalid pensioner evangelist John who has had charges brought against him by the state government. His crime? Whistleblowing on Channel 7 exposing the years-long porn email distribution ring at Public Trustee.

Legal Aid sent him a ‘Dear John’ letter. He, like me, is on the bones of his arse. All he can do is seek an adjournment based on looking for legal representation. And he did.

Wonder what the record is for the number of adjournments when you claim that no representation is constitutionally not on?

Been there. Done that. Sometimes it makes more sense (as far as one’s health is concerned) to take a slap on the wrist for something you believe you are not guilty of, put it all behind you, and become more hardened to the society around.

Though, thank heavens Peter Lalor wasn’t like that back at the Eureka Stockade rebellion of 1854.

Anyway, I will continue to seek out my Don Quixote astride that horse. Somehow, I don't fancy my chances fronting up to the full bench of the Supreme Court, manilla folder in hand, attempting to prove that a decision made by a District Court Judge is just so wrong...THAT THE TRUTH DID NOT PREVAIL!

The guy from Crown Law? He was just way too good! The truth took a buggering. Trouble was, I'm no lawyer.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

RANN Government. Charges Invalid Pensioner Whistleblower.

One thing I love about being Irish is that I don't give a toss about social status, particularly the standing of Politicians, the ones I don’t like.

After all, are we not all equal?

I think this shot of a recent Irish tabloid, with the Irish politicians in full view, says it all...if only the Australian media (occasionally harping on about the great Aussie larrikinism) took a leaf from this front page!


Here in South Australia, truly, are some fantastic Politicians. They work their arses off!

Not all are useless. BUT, the ones that are...they really, really do it in a big way!

The present ruling Labor Government is as detached from its party founding philosophies as Mongolian Yak is from my dinner plate.

A government that fart arses around with dollars and cents for the needy, but has no problemo whatsoever flashing the multi-million dollar cheque book for an extremely already-rich cyclist, or for some bloody trade show in a town in rural Italy that no one has ever heard of...except for the Premier, and his missus who has a financial interest there.

And before you take a swing at me, yes, I know, the economic benefits. Well, tell that to Mary and her kids living in the back of the family car, whilst HousingSA tells her there are no available houses as it sells 10% off its stock each and every year, and whilst other houses sit vacant for months with blowflys enjoying free rental!

Or, how about the charging of an Invalid Pensioner who blew the whistle on a porn email-ring in the government, just to shove it up him for having the audacity to appear on TV and squawk!

LINK TO VIDEO:
Channel 7, Today Tonight segment. Blowing the whistle on a government porn email ring.

And how out of touch is the RANN government?

My fellow whistleblower, an invalid pensioner, featured in this Channel 7 video, appears in Court this Thursday. The charge is WITHOUT PROPER AUTHORISATION OPERATED A RESTRICTED-ACCESS COMPUTER ...SYSTEM (Section 44(1) of the Summary Offences Act 1953).

Now, I'm no lawyer, and I've only been in I.T. for a tad over 30 years, BUT I am busting to see how the Government intends to play this one out.

As I have said elsewhere, if what we talk about on the show, is the basis of this charge, a charge brought about by John's appearance on TV, I can instantly rattle off the names of dozens of public servants from one government agency alone deserving the same treatment...and that includes those sprung (and confirmed by the Govt) by this whistleblower!

It is a sad day, even in hell, when your elected government turns on the people. In this case, Mister Attorney-General Rau, you need to step up to the plate and sprinkle it with common sense.
 
 I love the Irish word GOBSHITE...particularly when bundled with the word USELESS!!!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Premier RANN. Your Friday morning Tweet draws my ire!!!

Premier Rann.


On Twitter recently you espoused the short term anguish to the long term benefits of your 'tough' decisions.

In Kilburn you have a HousingSA male tenant, a 'special needs' tenant, who has for months been behaving toward the local children in the most inappropriate manner...nipple twisting, sexually charged comments, etc.

HousingSA knows. The police knows.

Each year you sell a percentage of your housing stock, that is policy. You hopefully will understand why you draw my ire in this respect.

http://adelcomp.blogspot.com/2010/12/minister-for-housing-i-will-hold-you.html

Young families who have fled violence, people without homes, and MY GRANDDAUGHTER'S mother who must get out of that street, get away from that bloke no one seems to be able to control...all struggle with your bureaucrat explanations as to why there is no forthcoming assistance.

Methinks you need ONE MORE POLICY ...a policy to immediately assist those in dire strife with assets you got sitting around with blowflies as the perfect tenants!

As I say in another Post, YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE I will hold vicariously liable should anything untoward happen to my 10 month old granddaughter!

 A common law doctrine that renders a person (or corporation) liable for the acts of another despite no personal fault on the part of the first person. The most common form of vicarious liability is the liability of an employer for acts and omission of their employees committed in the course of employment.

Wonder what Minister Rankine would do if you called her and echoed the same story if my granddaughter was your granddaughter...I can see the removalist truck from here!!!