Police dropped a prosecution that a former CEO violated an AVO imposed to protect model Simone Holtznagel after he was previously exonerated of stalking the woman.
When the two allegedly interacted during the throngs of Vivid at Sydney’s Circular Quay, Benjamin Reeves, 59, was detained in June on suspicion of violating the apprehended violence order.
When the former Playboy model saw him, the former chief executive of the Australian Association of Graduate Employers was en route to his house in McMahons Point, according to his lawyer Osman Samin at the time.
On Tuesday, Reeves was scheduled to appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court to answer to an allegation that he violated the apprehended violence order in June of this year.
However, Detective Inspector Adam Solah dismissed the accusation in a letter from NSW Police that was sent on Thursday and obtained by AAP.
“The matters you have raised, together with the evidence available to the prosecution, have been examined carefully,” Solah wrote in a letter to Samin.
“The Command have considered the representations carefully and it has been determined for the Matter of Contravene AVO to be withdrawn.”
Holtznagel became well-known during the seventh season of Australia’s Next Top Model.
When the AVO and stalking charges were dropped in June, Magistrate Glenn Bartley questioned Holtznagel’s veracity, claiming that what was captured on CCTV evidence conflicted with her account of what happened.
Reeves, she alleged, pursued her in a Bondi pub, making eye contact with her for 40 seconds and then suddenly appearing behind her, inches from her face.
The magistrate concluded that the case should not have proceeded because there were no actual chances of victory. He mandated that the prosecutor shell out $36,000 for Reeves’ legal fees.
On Tuesday, Samin stated that although the verdict was a huge relief, the claims had a tremendous effect on his client’s life.
Samin remarked, “It’s destroyed his life. “He’s lost his job, he’s lost friends (and) his reputation has been severely damaged.”
Reeves was suing the Daily Mail for defamation over an article he said wrongly accused him of stalking Holtznagel and a different, unnamed lady, which resulted in him losing his job as CEO of the AAGE. This year, in July, the matter was quietly dismissed.
He was unsuccessful in his lawsuit against NSW Police for malicious prosecution and unlawful arrest for a different stalking charge, which was also dropped, but he was successful in arguing that he was wrongfully imprisoned because of the length of his custody.
