Speed Kills Your Reputation: How A Living Treasure Became A Human Headline

The Sunday Age

Sunday December 30, 2007

John Elder

Marcus Einfeld was a pillar of the community, until he told a court a dead woman was driving his car. John Elder reports.

IN SOME measure, Marcus Einfeld is blessed by the fact he's been charged with a variety of offences. It gives his shrinking reputation a bit of breathing space - because nothing new can be dug up and published until the retired Federal Court judge has had his day in court as a defendant. Not that people aren't trying, of course. A week after the human rights campaigner was committed to stand trial over 13 serious dishonesty offences, Sydney's Daily Telegraph ran a piece claiming that Einfeld could be the first Living National Treasure to be sacked.

The National Trust, which administers the list of LNTs, hadn't given the matter much thought until the paper came calling. LNTs are generally expected to fall off the list by . . . eventually dying. There is no review process in place, but the National Trust board now says it might establish one.

So, yes, alleged speeding-fine dodger Marcus Einfeld could be the first to go. Between now and February 1 - when Einfeld will appear on charges of perverting the course of justice, perjury, and making and using a false statement - we may see further colourful attempts to keep the great man's fall into infamy running hot on the news. For the media, the Einfeld saga is like a big bowl of chilli-flavoured potato chips: spicy, moreish and repeatedly explosive. It begins almost two years ago.

January 8, 2006

Einfeld's silver Lexus is caught by a speed camera doing 60km/h in a 50km/h zone in the suburb of Mosman.

August 7, 2006

Giving sworn evidence supporting a statutory declaration, Einfeld tells a Sydney court he wasn't in the car. He says he'd lent it to an American-based friend, Professor Teresa Brennan, who has since died. The case is dismissed and Einfeld excused from paying the $77 fine.

Daily Telegraph reporter Viva Goldner, covering the case, trawls the internet for information about Brennan.

August 8

Goldner reports that Teresa Brennan has actually been dead for three years, killed in a hit-run accident. Einfeld is quoted as saying: "This was a totally different person . . . another Professor Brennan."

Einfeld says he can't be sure of her first name or what kind of professor she was, but he says she'd also died in a traffic accident.

August 9

NSW police begin a review of the evidence.

August 10

Einfeld changes his story for the third time, saying now he doesn't remember who was driving, but can "categorically deny" he was in the car at the time.

August 11

Lawyers for Einfeld say they will reveal the identity of the mystery driver in a matter of days. Meanwhile, it's revealed that Einfeld is using the honorific "Hon. Justice" on his letterhead and during public appearances. As a retired judge, he is no longer entitled to do so.

August 15

A charitable company headed by Einfeld collapses in debt, leaving the Government's overseas aid program, AusAID, thousands of dollars out of pocket.

August 19

The "PhD" listed on Einfeld's letterhead and Who's Who entry is revealed to be "not worth the paper they're written on". He claims two doctorates, both reportedly bought from US "diploma mills".

August 21

Paul Sheehan in The Sydney Morning Herald states Einfeld's Who's Who entry is both extensively padded and dodgy. "The more you examine the career of the Honourable Marcus Einfeld, QC, the less you find. The great mystery is why it has taken so long for the media to take an axe to this rooster."

August 24

It's revealed that Einfeld has used a "visiting professor friend" as an alibi in dealing with two previous traffic infringements. In statutory declarations, Einfeld said New York-based medical researcher Dr Nadine Levick was driving his official Federal Court car when it was captured, in 1999 and 2000, by speed and traffic cameras. In both instances, the fines were waived. Levick refuses to comment publicly but later tells police Einfeld's claims aren't true.

Meanwhile, Einfeld's solicitor, Joseph Michael Ryan, quits the case and the legal profession because of the wild-card antics of a former girlfriend, callgirl Marie Christos. While rooting through Ryan's wheelie bin in search of evidence that he had a new lady friend, Christos discovers handwritten notes related to the Einfeld case. She gives copies of the documents to police and media.

August 29

Einfeld goes to court and pays a $75 fine for disobeying a no-parking sign at Bondi Junction on January 5 - three days before the speed camera incident that started this circus. It is two weeks since Einfeld's lawyers said they'd name the person driving that day. No name is forthcoming.

September 17

Solomon Islands Prime Minis-ter Manasseh Sogavare cancels Einfeld's appointment as head of the inquiry into riots in the capital Honiara.

October 11

NSW Crown Solicitor Ian Knight says media coverage of the story has "crossed the line" and that Einfeld could never be given a fair trial because of prejudicial press reports.

January 8, 2007

NSW police reveal 140 people have invoked the "Einfeld defence" by naming South Aus-tralian businessman Jim Vas-soss as an alibi for their traffic offences. They all thought Vas-soss was dead when in fact he had recovered from a serious illness. One of the fraudsters, Michael Triganza, 57, is jailed for three months.

January 9

Teresa Brennan is sort of brought back to life by one Angela Liati, who has never met Einfeld but gives a statement to police supporting his initial alibi. Liati says she met the professor at a retreat and was a passenger in the silver Lexus on the day in question. Liati is best known for a public court case in 1995 when she sued multi-millionaire car salesman Peter Warren for $600,000 and a tea set that once belonged to Elton John's mother. She was Warren's housekeeper, then his live-in lover. During the trial, she was portrayed as a gold digger but was eventually awarded $125,000.

In 1996, she was declared bankrupt after failing to pay legal costs - and she said she hoped to never come to court again. Warren died in 2006.

January 10

It's reported that Liati is a convicted shoplifter and a "proven liar".

January 14

Liati says she wishes she never came forward to help Einfeld. "My life has been destroyed," she says, claiming she'd lost the love of her life because of the publicity. Her former boyfriend, who says he hasn't seen Liati for nine months, recently sent her a text to say leave him alone and described her as someone who loves the limelight.

January 21

Barristers for Einfeld and for-mer lover Vivian Schenker seek a midnight injunction against a "bombshell" newspaper report. The injunction is granted but is too late to stop the story getting out. To wit, Schenker - media adviser to the Red Cross, former SBS journalist and one-time adviser to Mark Latham - has told police she was in Einfeld's car on January 8 the previous year, and that he was driving.

Schenker had previously supported Einfeld's claims that he'd been driving his mother's car that day. She reportedly "rolled over" when confronted by evidence that left her vulner-able to charges.

February 23

During a radio interview, con-fronted by a suggestion she might be charged, Liati says she might have been mistaken about the exact date she was in Einfeld's car.

February 24

Einfeld's "dodgy" Who's Who entry is revised. He's now listed as 68 years old instead of 67, and his claims of visiting pro-fessorships at York University in Toronto and Phoenix University in Arizona are no longer to be found. Also gone are claims that he was a director of Marks and Spencer and a QC in Britain since 1977.

February 25

Einfeld is forced to resign as patron of Sydney NRL team the Roosters.

March 29

Einfeld and Liati are charged with perverting the course of justice.

July 20

The NSW Police Integrity Com-mission reveals it's investigat-ing officers who have used the "Einfeld defence" to dodge traffic fines.

December 13

After a four-day committal, Einfeld is sent to trial. Wit-nesses include Vivian Schenker and Sky News presenter John Mangos. Oh, and Marie Christos, who skips up to Einfeld and says: "Hi Marcus. I'm the prostitute in the case."

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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