By Karen Sweeney, Aap
A Dandenong South-based trucking boss charged over the deaths of four Victoria Police officers will still face trial on the Supreme Court despite the manslaughter charges being dropped.
Connect Logistics manager Simiona Tuteru, 51, was due to stand trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court last month charged over the deaths of the officers in the April 2020 Eastern Freeway collision.
It was alleged he permitted drug-affected driver Mohinder Singh, from Cranbourne, to get behind the wheel of the truck, despite claims he was too tired to drive.
Manslaughter charges were dropped ahead of the trial and replaced with four heavy vehicle charges.
A trial on those charges will go ahead in the Supreme Court, after discussions about whether it should drop back to the County Court.
Prosecutor Matt Fisher was warned by Justice Lex Lasry on Monday about the need to wrap the case up.
“It’s time this matter is brought to a head one way or another,” he said.
Pre-trial hearings are scheduled to begin in mid-February and he urged Mr Fisher to have a final clear version of how the prosecution case has been formulated before then.
“It won’t be a straightforward task. That’s what I said last time and it proved to be insurmountable,” he said.
Tuteru’s barrister David Hallowes SC said there was an application for a permanent stay in the matter. If that is unsuccessful, there will be further applications about the content of the prosecution case.
He described the fresh indictment as dramatically different to previous versions and flawed in many ways.
They will argue that the indictment is invalid, or so flawed it will require the prosecutors to once again re-case their argument.
“We’re just not clear at all how the Crown are putting some aspects,” he said.
Justice Lasry urged Mr Fisher to pay attention to some of the issues raised by Mr Hallowes sooner rather than later.
The case will return to court again on 8 February.
