A jury has taken less than two hours to find former Ipswich City Council official Craig Kelvin Maudsley not guilty of misconduct while in public office.
The 57-year-old was chief officer-in-charge of the Works Parks and Recreation Department for the council in 2017.
He was on trial in the District Court in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, for allegedly avoiding official council procedure to sponsor the International Legends of League football event in 2017 to the value of $12,500.
The International Legends of League is a private organisation that travels to regional communities with ex-NRL stars to play exhibition games.
The organisation relies solely on sponsorship from the community it visits to fund the events.
During the three-day trial, the jury heard from four witnesses.
Three of them worked in finance areas of the Ipswich City Council at the time and the fourth was Troy Byers, the director of International Legends of League.
The jury was shown invoices from the organisation paid by the Ipswich City Council under the authority of Mr Maudsley, which equated to $12,500 for advertising costs, corporate tables for the event dinner, and corporate box seats on the night of the game.
Support from former mayor Paul Pisasale
The jury was also played a series of phone calls from a few weeks before the May 2017 event between Mr Maudsley and Legends of League director Troy Byers, and Mr Maudsley and the then-mayor's executive officer Ben Michael Hayward.
In the phone recordings, Mr Maudsley told Mr Hayward the then-Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale had told Mr Buyers he would support the Legends of League event.
Mr Maudsley is heard talking to Mr Hayward, trying to clarify how much money the mayor was willing to spend on the event and how he could go about getting funding for the event.
Over the course of the calls, Mr Maudsley and Mr Hayward discussed ways they could come up with $12,500 to financially support the event.
"Paul [Pisasale] will want tables at the sportsman dinner, again I'm thinking that's legitimate … that's probably $7,500 there.
"If he's happy to support it to around that number, I'll try and find a way to do it."
Defence counsel Tony Glynn said in his closing address that Mr Maudsley could never have gone through the official "sponsorship" process from the start.
He said the council's sponsorship policy stated applications must be lodged with the council at least four months prior to the event.
The event was already set down for June but the first correspondence between Mr Maudsley and Mr Byers was in March.
"He calls Mr Hayward because he was trying find a way to solve the problem within the permitted guidelines," Mr Glynn told the hearing.
Co-accused also acquitted
Ben Michael Hayward was also on trial over alleged misconduct in public office relating to the same incident.
The crown had argued that through his role as executive officer to Cr Pisasale, he encouraged involvement in trying to arrange sponsorship for the event without going through official procedures.
Earlier on Wednesday, Judge Brad Farr FC found there was no evidence to support the crown's argument against Mr Hayward and ordered the jury to find him not guilty.
Mr Hayward said he was relieved justice had been served, but that the past three years had taken a toll.
"It's been difficult for my family — it's been hard," Mr Hayward said outside court.
"[It] obviously damaged my reputation to people who didn't know me, but a lot of people who knew me in town stuck by me.
