By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
FORMER Casey councillor Paul Richardson says he will rather go to jail than pay a $3000 fine after being convicted for willfully trespassing at a council meeting and resisting police arrest.
At a rowdy hearing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Monday), magistrate Lesley Fleming said she considered sending Richardson to jail but for his early guilty plea, which cut short what could have been a four-day hearing.
Richardson, who is also a Justice of the Peace, had originally pleaded not guilty.
Ms Fleming said Richardson showed “little respect for the prosecutor, the court and all the witnesses” during the hearing, including calling a witness Sam Aziz a “liar”.
“Your plea of guilty can’t be taken as a sign of remorse.
“You said in open court you believed you weren’t going to get justice,” Ms Fleming said.
“A conviction is appropriate given the nature of your offending and… exhibiting no remorse.”
During the abbreviated hearing, Ms Fleming cautioned Richardson several times for “irrelevant” questioning, “intimidating the court” by blessing himself with a cross sign and “insulting” witnesses and the police prosecutor Andrew Gannon.
At one stage Richardson, accusing the court of bias, said: “I’m considering calling a mistrial”.
After a lunch break, Richardson changed his plea to guilty, saying he could be “the first Aboriginal to die in custody” should he go to jail.
Richardson, in a long impassioned plea for mitigation, said he had never been in trouble with the law before.
“I’m squeaky clean. I’m a supporter of the law – that’s why I’m a Justice of the Peace and I want to be a bail justice.
Ms Fleming found Richardson had refused lawful requests for him to leave the council meeting in 3 April 2012.
At the start of the contest hearing, Casey Council dropped its local law charges against Richardson for allegedly refusing to cease disruptive and unruly behaviour and for failing to sit down and remain silent when called to order.
After the trial, Richardson said he would seek Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services help to appeal the case on 9 July at the County Court.
He said he would “gladly go to jail to show people in Casey to make a stand” rather than pay the fine.
