Pubdate: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia) Copyright: Illawarra Newspapers Contact: http://mercury.illnews.com.au/ WITNESS TELLS OF OFFICER USING COCAINE High on cocaine and in police uniform, Rodney Podesta visited his girlfriend hours before shooting dead a knife-wielding man on Bondi Beach, an inquiry was told yesterday. The former girlfriend told the NSW Police Integrity Commission (PIC) the young officer regularly used large amounts of the banned narcotic. Sometimes he snorted cocaine on duty, sometimes the drugs were the proceeds of police seizures, and on one occasion it was doled out from a stash worth perhaps $1000 stuffed inside a plastic sandwich bag. Identified only as SA2 during video testimony, the woman also branded Mr Podesta's partner, Senior Constable Tony Dilorenzo, a drug-user. She had referred to the pair as "the awesome twosome", she said, after their penchant for "partying a lot". The PIC is probing whether the two policemen were affected by cocaine, ecstasy or alcohol, or a combination of the three, on the morning they fatally shot Roni Levi. Both officers fired twice on the emotionally disturbed Frenchman about 7.30am on June 28, 1997. SA2 told counsel assisting the commission, Peter Johnson, SC, she first met Mr Podesta at Bondi's Liberty Lunch cafe in early 1997. A week later, Mr Podesta took her to dinner at Liberty Lunch and produced cocaine, which they shared in the toilet, SA2 said. It was to be the first of many times. While they were dating, Mr Podesta "would go straight to work from being out all night". Questioned on when she last saw Mr Podesta before Mr Levi's death, SA2 said it had been the night before, "in the late evening". "He was high on cocaine and he looked very agitated ... he couldn't sit still," she said. Under cross examination by Ken Madden, solicitor for Mr Podesta and Dilorenzo, SA2 denied telling "lie after lie". "You had a one-night stand and then you went around telling people Mr Podesta was your boyfriend, didn't you?," he suggested, to which she replied, "No". SA2 also claimed to have witnessed Dilorenzo snort cocaine with Mr Podesta at both the Sugar Reef nightclub and at Mr Podesta's house. Mr Madden put it to her that that, too, had been completely untruthful, an accusation she also denied. The hearing continues. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea