Qld: Chief magistrate charged

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Qld: Chief magistrate charged

By Janelle Miles and Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Dec 20 AAP - Queensland's chief magistrate Di Fingleton will face the otherside of the bench next month after being charged with two criminal offences today.

Ms Fingleton has been summonsed to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on January24 charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and threatening a witness.

The offences attract maximum jail terms of two and seven years.

Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) served a summons today after receivingadvice last week from the Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare.

Ms Clare found sufficient evidence to justify the charges against Ms Fingleton, whohas been the state's top magistrate since 1999.

Ms Fingleton has lost three Supreme Court actions taken against her by fellow magistratesalleging she had bullied them, overextended her powers and made inappropriate transferdecisions.

The charges arise from a CMC investigation of an email Ms Fingleton sent to coordinatingmagistrate Basil Gribbin after he gave an affidavit to magistrate Anne Tacker for herSupreme Court transfer dispute case.

Mr Gribbin alleged Ms Fingleton threatened to demote him after he gave evidence infavour of Ms Thacker.

Ms Fingleton, a former adviser to the Goss Labor government, stood aside from her positionon full pay earlier this month after the CMC investigation.

Attorney General Rod Welford has refused to act against her and Ms Fingleton, who receivesa $176,000-a-year salary package, has resisted calls for her to resign from the position.

Opposition justice spokesman Lawrence Springborg said regardless of the outcome ofthe criminal case against Ms Fingleton, she should be removed from office.

"This chief magistrate is now so damaged ... that her credibility will be such thatshe will not be able to with authority and respect continue to do her job," Mr Springborgtold AAP.

"The attorney general therefore, I think, has significant enough grounds to move towardsmaking application for the removal of this chief magistrate.

"I can't for the life of me see how public confidence can ever be restored ... onceshe has faced criminal charges."

Ms Fingleton faces having to appear before a subordinate magistrate to answer the chargesnext year.

But Mr Welford is considering whether someone should be brought in from interstateto hear the case.

"It does raise an interesting point about whether a head of a jurisdiction can, inthe first instance, come before a subordinate," Mr Springborg said.

"I wouldn't be averse to the concept of having maybe somebody come from outside, butI do believe the appropriate course of action is for a Queensland magistrate to hear it.

"I believe that we need to give the benefit of the doubt and that there'll be so muchinterest in this that any departure from what would be normal process would be ... condemnedand properly scrutinised."

AAP jhm/pjo/jc/de

KEYWORD: FINGLETON NIGHTLEAD