Magistrate slams BLM protest charges ‘written by Martian’
Charges against the alleged organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest held during Covid could be dropped due to cops’ “frightful” grammar.
Police & Courts
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Charges hang in the balance against the alleged organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest during Covid restrictions as a magistrate said a “Martian” may as well have written their charge sheets.
Crystal McKinnon and Meriki Onus have called for their charges of breaching the chief health officer directions to be struck out as the police boss considers whether to go ahead with prosecuting them over the June 6, 2020 rally.
If Victoria Police decides to scrap their charges, it could open the floodgates to dismiss all charges similarly worded against other people accused of breaching pandemic orders.
The anti-racism rally, which drew thousands of supporters into Melbourne’s CBD in defiance of social distancing restrictions, was among a global protest movement over the death of George Floyd in the United States.
The women’s bid to scrap their charges comes after Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton failed in court on Thursday to amend the wording of the charge against them, as his barrister Francesca Holmes conceded they were not drafted in “plain English”.
She told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that the charges were written with “terrible grammar, terrible drafting, and there’s a concession in relation to the fact it’s barely plain English”.
But she argued details of the charge were contained in the body of the formal document and any amendment to it would “not cause any injustice to the accused”.
Magistrate Andrew McKenna rejected the police’s application – which was made outside the 12-month limitation period to make an amendment – and said while the charge wasn’t incomprehensible or “gobbledygook”, it was “mangled in a frightful way”.
Court documents state Ms McKinnon and Ms Onus failed to comply with a direction that they “must not arrange to meet with more than 19 other persons (that they reside with) at an open public place” unless by exception from the chief health officer.
“Those words in brackets may as well have been made by a Martian,” Mr McKenna said.
His Honour said the charge was “deficient in a number of ways”, so much so that it forced an “experienced eye” to have to read it over and over to make sense of it.
In perhaps a sign of His Honour’s view of the case going forward, Mr McKenna said the primary issue was whether the charge as it was worded provided “sufficient detail of the offence”.
“In my view … it does not,” His Honour said.
Immediately after the court’s ruling, barrister Patrick Doyle SC, for Ms McKinnon and Ms Onus, applied to have the charges struck out.
But Ms Holmes, for the Chief Commissioner, said a decision couldn’t be made by her on whether to go ahead with the charges as they stood and she’d have to seek instructions.
The case was set down to return to court on February 7.
The court battle comes after police in July said they incorrectly told the women they were dropping the charges against them.
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