A trucking company employee is set to fight charges of manslaughter relating to the deaths of four police officers killed on the Eastern Freeway.
Simiona Tuteru, 49, was charged in August with four counts of manslaughter over the deaths of Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris and Constable Josh Prestney.
The officers were killed when a prime mover, driven by Mohinder Singh, veered into the emergency lane on the Eastern Freeway on April 22.
Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Josh Prestney, Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor and Constable Glen Humphris were killed on the Eastern Freeway.
Mr Tuteru, a Victorian manager at trucking company Connect Logistics, is accused of knowing before the crash that the mental state of Singh had deteriorated due to a lack of sleep and drug use.
Singh last week pleaded guilty to four counts of culpable driving causing death, possessing a drug of dependence and drug trafficking. A court heard he only had five hours of sleep and had been ranting about a witch in the three days leading up to the crash.
On Friday, Mr Tuteru's lawyer, David Hallowes, said that they would argue during committal that there wasn't enough evidence to support the charge of manslaughter.
"We will be making a submission at the end of the committal there is not evidence of sufficient weight to support a conviction for that charge," he said.
Truck driver Mohinder Singh.Credit: Nine News
He applied to cross-examine 22 witnesses during the contested committal hearing, which was expected to last about five days.
Most of the witnesses would be people who came into contact with Singh in the days leading up to the crash, who would be asked to give evidence about the way the truck driver was behaving, Mr Hallowes said.
Two truck drivers from Connect Logistics will also be asked to give evidence about the procedures in place at the company, and experts will be asked about issues relating to fatigue and impairment by drug use relating to driving.
"I understand the issue in this case is going to be the extent of this accused's knowledge of Mr Singh’s impairment, if any ... and what he ultimately did, if anything, to encourage Mr Singh to drive the vehicle at the time," said prosecutor Jason Ong.
Richard Pusey was stopped by the side of the road for allegedly speeding when the crash occurred.
Mr Hallowes also applied to cross-examine the two police officers in charge of the investigations relating to Singh and Porsche driver Richard Pusey, who had been stopped by the side of the road for allegedly speeding when the crash occurred.
"For the defence to have a proper understanding and explore the manner and extent of the investigation we submit, we must be able to cross-examine the other two police officers intimately involved with this very large investigation," he said.
This was opposed by the prosecution, who said that a taskforce had been set up by police to investigate "the entirety of the alleged offending in this matter" and that the informant involved in Mr Tuteru's matter was aware of the investigation as a whole.
Magistrate Greg McNamara allowed both police officers to be cross-examined, and set a date for a contested committal starting on May 17.
In separate proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday, Singh faced a post-committal directions hearing where a two-day plea hearing was set down for March 11 and 12.
Singh's lawyer, Peter Morrissey, said there would likely be "a significant volume of victim impact material" heard during the plea hearing given the deaths of four innocent officers.
Richard Pusey, 42, has been committed to stand trial on a number of driving charges and the rare offence of outraging public decency over allegations he used his mobile phone to film the aftermath of a crash.
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