A Canberra father was injured in a violent arrest, imprisoned for two weeks and dragged through the courts for seven months after police and prosecutors accepted false allegations made by his ex and ignored clear evidence she was lying.
Thomas Zaja, 34, suffered two broken ribs and a broken tooth when an Australian Federal Police Tactical Response Team armed with automatic weapons used explosive charges to break into his property at 3am on October 17 last year, hauled him out of bed in his underwear, dragged him down a flight of metal steps, jumped on him, and made him stand in the street for an hour at gunpoint.
He was charged with assault, choking/suffocating/strangling, and threatening to kill, and refused bail after the raid, which was carried out because Mr Zaja’s estranged girlfriend falsely told police he was a domestic violence abuser and a member of a bikie gang, and had a stash of weapons and drugs.
Mr Zaja, who has never been a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, was released two weeks later after his barrister told a court there was no evidence to support the charges, but was put on strict conditions and prevented from seeing his son, The Australian reported.
ACT Policing and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions then refused to drop the charges despite having evidence the claims against Mr Zaja were clearly fabricated and being repeatedly warned from the day of the raid that Mr Zaja’s ex was lying in order to gain custody of their child.
When digital forensics analysis of the woman’s phone was complete, it showed she had used texting subscription websites to fake threatening and obscene messages from Mr Zaja, but police took no action when presented with the evidence.
Mr Zaja’s solicitor Peter Woodhouse then wrote to the DPP in February, asking for the charges to be dropped
“The evidence available to police and to your office clearly shows that [the woman] sent the anonymous messages to herself and has therefore also fabricated evidence and, it seems, attempted to pervert the course of justice,” he wrote.
But the DPP insisted on proceeding with the charges, and when Mr Zaja’s lawyers asked for police bodycam footage from the raid they were informed that what existed only began after the property was already being searched.
In a hearing before Magistrate Jane Campbell in mid-March police accepted in cross-examination that the complainant had fabricated evidence and lied to police, and one officer failed to show up in court because he was dropping Mr Zaja’s phone at Digital Forensics seven months late.
The DPP the asked for more time to review the matter despite the evidence exonerating Mr Zaja, but Ms Campbell called the conduct of both police and prosecutors “egregious” and “unbelievable”.
“The police officer, the informant, today has expressed a belief that this complainant has fabricated evidence. The DPP presumably have that knowledge, and they have had that knowledge since January and no one has done anything about it,” she said.
She then awarded Mr Zaja costs, and ordered AFP Professional Standards and the Chief Police Officer be given a transcript of the proceedings.
The DPP dropped all charges against Mr Zaja on Friday, but Mr Woodhouse is calling for an apology, compensation, charges against the complainant, and for an end to allegations being “blindly accepted”.
“[The woman’s] despicable conduct is a prime example why those who chant the ‘believe all women’ mantra are so misguided,” he said.
Mr Zaja said he had been unable to see his son throughout the seven-month ordeal, and had been forced to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the charges and keep his earthworks business running.
“Why did it take so long? Why didn’t the police investigate or the DPP? What were they doing? It’s obvious why so many fathers kill themselves. Every morning driving to work, I think, if I just pull the steering wheel right straight into a truck, finish at all. But I can’t do that to my son,” he said.
ACT Policing said in a statement to The Australian that it would “seek to identify any learnings that may arise from this situation”, while the DPP denied failing to act and claimed it did not receive the “complete relevant material” until two days before the March hearing.
Header image: A photo of Mr Zaja being held at gunpoint during the raid taken by his mother.
The post Innocent father violently arrested and jailed after cops ‘blindly accepted’ ex’s lies first appeared on The Noticer.
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