Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker and other executives gave instructions for Constable Zach Rolfe to be charged in Darwin if any charges were to proceed, police notes show, marking the fifth instance of documented evidence showing the top cop’s involvement across all four days following the Yuendumu shooting and further contradicting Mr Chalker’s claim he was not involved in the process to charge.
The Director of Public Prosecutions took no longer than 90 minutes to recommend a murder charge for Constable Zachary Rolfe after being provided an unfinished brief of evidence, in a meeting held just before Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker and other executives decided to arrest and charge the officer, police diary notes reveal.
EXCLUSIVE: Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker, along with other police executives, made the decision to charge Constable Zach Rolfe with murder, police diary notes show, which directly contradicts the top cop’s claims last week that he had never been in a meeting where the charge was discussed, and was not involved in the process to charge.
Senior NT Police figures told police media manager Rob Cross to craft a media strategy around the call to arrest Constable Zach Rolfe just minutes after his boss Commissioner Jamie Chalker left an executive meeting in November 2019, with “one consistent message” for the public: that then-assistant commissioner Nick Anticich was the man who confirmed the directive to arrest and charge, investigator notes reveal.
NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker met with senior police executives 13 minutes before detectives investigating the death of Kumanjayi Walker were ordered to arrest and charge Constable Zach Rolfe with murder, notes from senior police show, despite the top cop saying last week he had never been in a meeting where the charge was discussed, and was not involved in the process to charge.
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker personally referred the Constable Zach Rolfe matter to the Territory’s anti-corruption body in 2019 for what he described as “suspected improper conduct” less than 48 hours after the incident and before any charges were filed, which appears to contradict his statement last week that he was “shocked” when the criminal charges were laid.
ANALYSIS: Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s second attempt to explain himself and his political masters this week, in the wake of the most high-profile criminal trial since a former NT police chief went to jail, saw him once again divorced from reality, contradicting his previous statements and leaving us all with more questions than we had before.
The Opposition continued to probe the Gunner Government over the Constable Zach Rolfe murder charge in Parliament, reiterating their calls for an independent public inquiry in the wake of the Police Commissioner’s claims that he was “as shocked as anyone” about the charges being laid – which seemingly contradicts his previous public statement.
EXCLUSIVE: The extent of Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s brother-in-law’s involvement in the 2020 Labor election campaign while drawing his taxpayer-funded deputy chief of staff salary has been further revealed in a series of internal emails obtained by the NT Independent.
READ THE DOCS: A standard 30-day Freedom of Information application turned into an eight-month struggle to extract public documents from the Office of the Chief Minister. Here are the documents we eventually obtained that show taxpayer funds being used for party-political campaigning by the Chief Minister.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner did not answer direct allegations made in Parliament that his brother-in-law and former deputy chief of staff approved the use of taxpayer money for Labor’s 2020 election campaign in breach of rules meant to prevent the misappropriation of public funds.
UPDATED: Chief Minister Michael Gunner has breached the trust of Territorians in a “disgusting, appalling abuse of power”, after it was revealed his brother-in-law and then-deputy chief of staff authorised the use of public funds for campaign travel during last year’s election, an independent MLA says.
