After years behind bars for a crime he should never have been convicted of, Zlate Cvetanovski is going after the State of Victoria for damages over the embarrassing conduct of Victoria Police officers and disgraced barrister Nicola Gobbo.
He's filed a damages claim in the Supreme Court after his 2011 conviction for drug trafficking was overturned on the basis that Victoria Police knew and didn't tell him that Ms Gobbo - his barrister - was informing on him while also defending the key prosecution witness against him.
The evidence of that witness - known only as Mr Cooper - was pivotal to his conviction, the trial judge found.
Mr Cvetanovski was jailed for 11 years and ordered to serve at least nine after a jury found him guilty of trafficking a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
He had initially been arrested and interviewed in 2006 and was charged in 2008.
In a civil suit filed this week, Mr Cvetanovski is seeking damages for wrongful deprivation of liberty and psychiatric injuries, medical and legal expenses, a loss of earning capacity plus interest and costs.
Mr Cvetanovski is also seeking exemplary or aggravated damages, claiming the misconduct of four particular officers was a disgrace of the highest order.
The officers are named as Jim O’Brien - who led the gangland-busting Purana Taskforce - Craig Hayes, James Coghlan and Dale Flynn.
“It was scandalous and constituted and egregious breach of their duties as officers and contumelious disregard for (Mr Cvetanovski’s) rights and liberty,” the suit says.
“The conduct was an affront to the court and criminal justice system, brought the justice system into disrepute and was an embarrassment - the extent of which is not capable of definition.”
The statement of claim says Mr Cooper made 45 statements to police against Mr Cvetanovski, and that while representing both men Ms Gobbo conducted welfare checks on Mr Cooper, edited drafts of his police statements and requested police look after him while he was in custody.
Between September 2006 and Mr Cvetanovski’s trial she and others provided financial assistance to Mr Cooper in custody, including regular payments into his prison canteen accounts and one-off payments for a computer and child support.
It also claims that between January 2006 and April 2008 she informed on him to Victoria Police, recommending he be targeted by investigators and suggesting that he be charged with additional offences.
The statement, filed by solicitors at Robinson Gill Lawyers, says the four officers knew Ms Gobbo was informing on Mr Cvetanovski, that she was acting for him when he was arrested, and that she had been instrumental in influencing Mr Cooper to give evidence against him, and that they did not disclose that to him.
It alleges the conduct of the officers was “malicious and intended to cause harm to (Mr Cvetanovski)” or was recklessly indifferent to the harm that was likely to ensue.
Mr Cvetanovski's case was one of a number examined as part of a royal commission into Victoria Police's use of Ms Gobbo as an informer, known as Lawyer X.
Mr Cooper gave evidence at that inquiry.
A judge alone trial has been requested to consider the claim.
