What is the general impression about Botha?
I didn't follow the bail hearing closely, I didn't watch him at that hearing and don't even know what exactly took place there (was not a member here then!), but just heard that Roux tore him apart.
But just from the fact that
1. he was removed as the lead investigator on the ground that there were pending murder charges against him,
2. he was not called by the Prosecution Team as a witness, and
3. he was not called by the Defense Team either,
my conclusion is that he was the one in the Police Team who was compromised. For the following reasons:
a) That there were pending charges against him could not have been unknown to the Police Department when he was assigned the job in the first place - so to me the removal was for some other reason, it was just a convenient ground on which he was removed.
b) surely he could have something significant to contribute on behalf of the State, being at the scene quite early and being the investigator during the initial days. There has to be some reason for not putting him up as a witness. They must have thought he has the potential to completely spoil their case when at the stand,
c) Defense team could have used him to establish that the scene was definitely contaminated and possibly other things in their favor (if my conclusion is correct), but then why didn't they call him? Because they were also equally worried that under cross examination from Nel, he might be exposed.
Is this a reasonable conclusion? Or was there anything during the initial stages or during the bail hearing that points to the contrary? Would love to have your views on this.
I thought I'd post this akp, I read it a little while back and bookmarked it. The charges were dropped against Hilton Botha but then along comes OP.........
The disgraced policeman who has been removed from the Oscar Pistorius murder investigation after being torn apart by the athlete's defence lawyer on the witness stand says hes no bungling Inspector Clouseau.
Asked why he had been replaced, he referred to telephone records, forensic and ballistics reports that he was trying to get, but could not.
"They probably felt I had made a few mistakes, which were not my fault, he said. I couldn't testify about evidence I didn't have in the case file. I couldn't even give hearsay testimony because I hadn't got the feedback I needed.
"I didn't want to stand up there and lie. If you lie in front of a court it discredits you, although in this instance I've already been discredited even though I didn't lie."
He welcomed the appointment of Vinesh Moonoo to oversee the case. "I stand back with respect. This is a guy with 30 years experience.
Botha also denied reports that he and three other cops had been on a drunken bender when opened fire on a minivan taxi while on duty in late 2011. Charges against him and two other officers were dropped last year, but then mysteriously reinstated this month.
Botha said he found that "very strange."
In a detailed account of the incident, Botha told the Daily News he and two other policemen had been tracking a suspect in the brutal murder of Denise Stratford, a 55-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed down a drain near the Pretoria office where she worked. Security guards had reported finding spent bullet cartridge casings and a trail of blood in the parking lot.
Botha said he and the other cops were on the way to a house where they believed one of the murder suspects might be hiding when the taxi drove straight into their path and forced them off the road before speeding off.
"We didn't know it was being used as a taxi. The windows were tinted and we couldn't see inside, he said. After it ran us off the road we thought the occupants might be carjackers or cash-in-transit robbers. They didn't stop. We sped off after them and they picked up speed. We tried to pursue it, flashed our lights and showed our identification out the window. We were in a pickup truck with police registration plates which were clearly visible but they kept going at (100 miles) an hour. I then fired shots at the van but aiming low to shoot out the tires.
"Later it turned out the driver knew the local police station commander and the next thing we were arrested, locked up and charged with attempted murder.
"There wasn't a case because nobody was killed and all the shots were under the tires. Only one hit above the tires."
The case was postponed four times and then withdrawn. The cops were given back their bail money, passports and firearms.
Botha is adamant that none of them were under the influence of alcohol and plans to legal steps against "the person who said we were drunk.
"It is laughable. We were on duty and we were working on a murder case. In such a situation they would have drawn our blood to confirm that we were intoxicated but that was never done."
National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega defended Botha and said the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to re-instate the charges against him "raises suspicion.
Though off the case, Botha still believed Pistorius was guilty of murder.
"It will take about a week before the general is on top of it and he'll have everything that I should have got and wanted to get, he said. I'm still positive about the case. As long as justice is served, I'm happy."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/det-botha-speaks-article-1.1270104
