There was no major conspiracy in the fact that two protest organizers accused of Black Lives Matter were wrongly told that the charges against them had been dropped, a magistrate heard.
Meriki Onus and Crystal McKinnon are accused of violating the Chief Health Officer’s COVID-19 guidelines by organizing the protest in June 2020.
They were charged almost a year later, then it was said on June 29 this year that the charges would be dropped because they were “hopelessly flawed”.
But prosecutors say the interim sergeant who made that call did not have the authority to do so and the accusations continue.
“There is no big conspiracy here about wrongdoing or political decisions,” Andrew Sim told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court Wednesday.
“It was a mistake if someone thought they had the file and they didn’t.”
Attorney Felicity Gerry QC, representing the women, wanted the police to deliver a series of documents that she believed could prove that the women had suffered injustice, including that the judicial system had been discredited.
Victoria Police Chief Shane Patton challenged a subpoena via Mr. Sim, who described the request as a fishing expedition.
It would require overwhelming exercise, individually searching through more than 50,000 documents for details that may not exist, he said.
Mr. Sim said it’s a shame that the women were told they intended to drop the charges, but he noted that it was just an intention.
Magistrate Andrew McKenna denied the request in its entirety on Wednesday afternoon.
She said the women’s case appeared to be that it was in the interest of justice that timely notification of the withdrawal of the charges binds the Victorian police and prevents them from any future resurrection of the prosecution.
“When it was first addressed to me, this topic sounded a little exotic,” he said.
“By law, no charge is actually withdrawn until the court … agrees to the request to withdraw a charge.”
But Dr. Gerry described the planned withdrawal, first communicated to the women and then confirmed by their lawyer, as unambiguous.
“You have to be able to rely on those trials when someone works in the prosecutor’s office in Melbourne, otherwise it’s chaos,” he said.
He commented on Mr. McKenna’s body language during the hearing.
“I saw your honor roll his eyes,” he commented at one point.
Later, she told him she didn’t know why she was shrugging.
McKenna said decisions sometimes go through several hands, some with different points of view, before a final result.
“These things happen. And with more regularity than some might appreciate,” he said.