Victoria Kleeberg, Mark Kleeberg, Inga Vyacheslavovna White refused public health orders at The Organic Store, Bowral

Police body-worn camera footage of the arrest of the owners of a Bowral organic store was played in court this week as the pair - and an employee - faced a hearing for refusing to comply with public health orders.

Following an incident that was the talk of the town in July last year, two vocal anti-vaxxer owners of an organic store and their employee fronted court on Monday for refusing to comply with the public health orders at the time.

Victoria and Mark Kleeberg, co-owners of The Organic Store in Bowral, as well as employee Inga Vyacheslavovna White, appeared at Moss Vale Local Court for their hearings where several of their charges were withdrawn.

Mrs Kleeberg, 62, was charged with not wearing a fitted face mask in a retail shop and not providing details upon arrest; Mr Kleeberg, 63, was charged with not wearing a fitted face mask and Ms White, 42, with failing to wear a face mask on a business premises and not providing her name and address.

They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The violent arrest of the owners was captured on camera by a customer of the store and widely shared on social media. The video shows Mrs Kleeberg and her husband being arrested and escorted to the police wagon. Mr Kleeberg can be seen struggling with police and shouting before being brought to the ground by three officers.

The footage shows Mrs Kleeberg being escorted to the police wagon while Mr Kleeberg argues with police.

On Monday, several videos of police body-worn camera footage were played in court from July 1, 2021, to reveal the conversations between officers and the accused before arrests were made. Two officers were also cross-examined.

A senior constable from the Southern Highlands Police Station said he and several officers attended the wholefood store after receiving a complaint on Crime Stoppers about the business not complying with public health orders.

The senior constable recalled seeing signs that said customers “did not need to wear masks” and that “if you’re vaccinated, don’t enter”.

He also observed Mrs Kleeberg in conversation with a customer, saying “if (the customer) wanted to wear a mask inside, she can leave.”

Mrs Kleeberg was heard in the body-worn footage to identify the reason for her and her husband not allowing people with masks in, which was for “hygienic reasons” as “people touch their mask and then they touch the food and we do not want that”.

The police officers who were cross-examined also observed no QR codes or hand sanitiser at the store.

Mrs Kleeberg was captured in long discussions with police, saying she didn’t need to abide by the public health orders because they were “not a law, but an act,” which Mr Kleeberg backed as well.

Officers were seen to repeatedly remind them that it was part of legislation under the public health act and was therefore law.

She then repeatedly said: “I do not go by your law, I’m a living person on living soil”.

“What you're doing is not legal, you cannot mandate what we’re wearing and what we do to our bodies,” Mrs Kleeberg said in the body-worn footage.

Due to her not complying, the officer then asked for her details, which she refused to give because “(she doesn’t) need to give details unless (she’s) arrested”.

To which the officer said: “well you will be in a second”.

When cross-examining one officer, Mr and Mrs Kleeberg’s lawyer, Mani Shishineh, said Mrs Kleeberg had mentioned several times that she held a medical exemption, which the officer acknowledged and said that he received the medical exemptions via email from a doctor for both her and her husband several days later.

The officer said at the time, he had not observed any “physical or mental disabilities” rather that they were “not wearing masks due to political ideology”.

However Mr Shishineh told the court that “certain medical conditions are not visible, such as anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder,” and that the officer was not a health professional, which he acknowledged.

Employee Ms White represented herself at court and was observed in the body-worn footage to say she also had a medical exemption and was “feel(ing) threatened and anxious because (the officer) didn’t believe (she) had a medical condition”.

Due to there being many other matters at court on Monday, Magistrate Mark Douglass had to adjourn the hearings to another date.

The matters will continue to be heard on June 6, which is the same day separate charges for Mrs Kleeberg will be listed.

The court previously heard she was arrested at around 9.30am on August 31 in Moss Vale after allegedly participating in an unlawful outdoor anti-lockdown protest in a stay-at-home area.

Mrs Kleeberg was arrested for her participation and resisting an officer in the execution of his duty.