EX-GIRLFRIEND SAYS POLICE OFFICER USED COCAINE ON NIGHT BEFORE KILLING

Rodney Podesta, one of two police officers who shot dead Frenchman Ronnie
Levi on Bondi Beach on June 28, 1997, had visited a former girlfriend the
night before in uniform and was "high on cocaine", the Police Integrity
Commission heard yesterday.

The woman, code-named SA2, giving evidence by video-link with her face
obscured, told the commission she and Mr Podesta had both used cocaine in
the month they had been "steady" and she had seen him deal in drugs.

She had seen the other policeman involved in the shooting, Tony Dilorenzo,
also use cocaine.

SA2, appearing before Judge Paul Urquhart, who is inquiring into
circumstances surrounding Mr Levi's shooting, said Mr Podesta had told her
he liked working shifts starting at 7pm Saturday nights, ending 12 hours
later, because it allowed him to do "drug busts at house parties" and seize
cocaine for his own consumption.

Mr Podesta, who resigned from the police service in March last year, has
given evidence that the night before the shooting he was off duty, had gone
to a birthday celebration at a Thai restaurant and, after playing pool at
the Bar Beach Hotel, Bondi, had gone home.

SA2 said she had met Mr Dilorenzo soon after meeting Mr Podesta. She had
seen Mr Dilorenzo using cocaine at the Sugareef nightclub in Kings Cross
and she had seen him and Mr Podesta using cocaine together on several
occasions, including a time at Mr Podesta's home.

She said that after a month of going out, she and Mr Podesta had gone their
separate ways, but had been friendly and had still seen each other from
time to time.

SA2 said he would be out all night, then go straight to work after that. He
had told her he used drugs while on duty butwould be subject to urine tests
at work, so would have to be "clean for three months". He had not kept up
to that and she had warned him a few times of the risk he was taking.

In answer to counsel assisting the inquiry, Mr Peter Johnson, SC, SA2 said
she knew when Mr Podesta saw her the night before the shooting he was under
the influence of cocaine because he "looked very agitated ... could not sit
still".

He had been at her home, by then elsewhere in Bondi, for between 15 and 30
minutes. No drugs had been taken and he had told her he was working that
night.

A few days later, she had rung Mr Podesta and he had sounded "distraught"
and had said he had "done something very bad".

Ms Alison Stenmark, for the NSW Police Service, asked: "Do you mean he shot
somebody while under the influence of drugs, you understood that?"

SA2: "Yes."

SA2 denied to Mr Ken Madden, for Mr Podesta, that her evidence had been
false, including her account of Mr Podesta's visit the night before the
shooting. She rejected that she had had a "one-night stand" with Mr Podesta
and that Mr Podesta had said he did not want to continue the relationship.

The inquiry resumes today.