RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: YaY! OZschwitz lawyer kicked poLICEwoman in breath test spat  Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:35 pm | |
| A SYDNEY solicitor caught driving with more than four times the legal blood alcohol limit was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed on the footpath before he kicked a female police officer in the chest as she tried to contain him in a police paddy wagon.
Belligerent, abusive and drunk, with what would later be found to be a blood alcohol concentration of .215, David Marocchi, had resigned as head of the Liverpool office of the high-profile personal injury law firm Keddies Lawyers only a fortnight earlier before launching a new firm. On the website of the firm, Paramount Lawyers, he is described as "approachable and charismatic".
The subject of multiple complaints by former clients still under investigation by the Legal Services Commissioner, he was caught driving late on Friday, February 6, this year, in King Street, Newtown, after police noticed the "excessively loud music" coming from his black Commodore.
Marocchi, who told police he had drunk 1½ bottles of white wine with Asian food over five hours, had not initially responded to the police siren or flashing lights but had pulled over 300 metres closer to the city after police indicated he do so.
According to police, the accredited personal injury specialist did not acknowledge the officers when they approached his car, identified themselves and observed his dilated pupils and alcohol breath.
Later, when a police alcometer indicated alcohol had been detected on his breath, police said he "repeatedly" told them to "prove it".
According to a police statement, read this week by the magistrate Bernard Kennedy after Marocchi pleaded guilty in Newtown Local Court to five charges arising from that night, he repeatedly told Constable Tania Holmes and probationary constable Henry Hurley, who asked him to comply with a breath test: "I don't have to f---ing do anything. I'm a solicitor. Prove to me I'm over."
When he did comply with a roadside breath test, Marocchi failed three attempts to supply a sufficient sample. He was warned this was an offence, and was arrested when another five attempts also failed.
When he refused to leave his vehicle the keys were confiscated, police used force to dislodge him and Marocchi "immediately clenched his fists and said 'F---ing let me go, bitch'," police said.
In the ensuing struggle, Marocchi grabbed Constable Holmes's right wrist and as he thrashed his arms and resisted arrest, she fell backwards on to King Street suffering a graze and a bleeding left elbow. Constable Hurley was also grazed in the scuffle in which Marocchi was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and put into the back of the police wagon.
Trying to get his legs inside so they could close the door, Marocchi, lying on his back, kicked the chest of Constable Holmes forcing her to fall backwards. "F---ing bitch," he said to her, according to police.
Marocchi, who will be sentenced on May 15 after attending a traffic offender's program, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting police, driving with a high range prescribed concentration of alcohol, resisting arrest and refusing/failing a breath test.
Meanwhile, he has settled, on confidential terms, a breach-of-contract case brought against him by Keddies that had related to the alleged poaching of more than 25 clients since his resignation on January 22.
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