[3] He was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999,[4] and was dismissed in 2015 following his conviction for negligent driving causing the death of Natalia Pearn in 2013.
[8] In 2008, Ellis controversially decided to charge Jack Johnston, Commissioner of Tasmania Police with divulging State Secrets, igniting a political stoush with Premier David Bartlett.
Ellis was later criticised by Duncan Kerr, Member of the House of Representatives, in Federal Parliament for both the prosecution of Bryan Green and Jack Johnston.
Kerr said: ''In each instance the DPP has pursued prosecutions against high-profile office holders for crimes not involving any element of dishonesty, corruption or intrinsic criminality and so it was entirely predictable, in my opinion, that the harms unleashed and the disruption to our community, would exceed any good that a successful prosecution might achieve...Unlike in Tasmania, Mr Ellis' Commonwealth counterpart has no role in general civil litigation.
[14] On 24 March 2013, Ellis was driving south on the Midland Highway in Tasmania around a sweeping bend when his vehicle crossed into a lan of oncoming traffic.
Describing the crash in her evidence, Ellis’ partner, Anita Smith, told the court: It was like a hole had opened up in the earth and we had fallen through it ...
I could see the driver’s face and I was just praying that we wouldn’t collide – but we did...Their car spun into a ditch and there was silence...Tim said, ‘We’re alive and I’ve broken my leg’, so I realised I wasn't dead.
[20] On 15 January 2015, Premier of Tasmania Will Hodgman and Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin announced Ellis would not continue in the role of DPP, after the Governor accepted their recommendation he be removed from the position.