Herro v Villian Part I
The State of NSW v Ivo BAKOTA or a KRAP Guide to NSW Local Courts and Running Red Lights Safely.
Legal Disclaimer: please read the disclaimer at the end (bottom section) of this post and future posts before continuing to read further. The disclaimer is probably longer than the actual post.
In this and future self indulgent posts on the subject I plan to chronicle my experience and frustration in preparing my own defense against charges laid by police against yours truly Ivo BAKOTA in the case of R v BAKOTA which was commenced by NSW police officer Constable Michael HERRO. The next hearing is scheduled for 6 December 2023 at the Local Court house in Burwood, New South Wales, Australia. Any help in planning my defense would be greatly appreciated privately or in the comments.
The Burwood Court House is a fairy nice place. It’s a great place to spend a couple of hours on a Monday morning, if you’ve got nothing better to do, it’s well worth dropping in if you have the time. It is much better than the Google 2.8 stars would suggest, although it’s not as nice as Grafton. I’m a huge fan of 1880’s pre-federation architecture and really enjoyed the 13 hour round-trip to see the Grafton Court House. In fact, I liked the Grafton Court House so much I took time off work to visit the court house about an 5 times in 2018-2019. I’m also a huge fan of the heritage-listed Downing Centre Local & District Court. These places are architecturally pleasing and full of unintentional comedy gold. For those of that follow the work of the Aussie Cossack and AC/DC the Burwood Court House may look familiar, it’s featured in a number of the Aussie Cossack’s videos and I’d also speculate Angus Young may have also visited it on occasion as it’s right next door to the Burwood Police Station 😉).
Without knowing the details of the case or the actual charge, what do you think the most likely outcome will be? Please respond in the poll below.
For those unfamiliar with Australia and the Local Courts, the Frienlyjordies YouTube video below is a pretty accurate recreation. In the skit, “Aussie Courts”, he depicts typical local court scenarios that are played out daily. If you like his video you may consider a visit, admission is free, you can just sit in the public gallery and enjoy the show. I can relate to the both the defendants and also the police/court officer laughing at what he is hearing. Even Jordan’s portrayal of a Magistrate is pretty accurate, they have to listen to this sort of stuff all day and I often wonder how they mange to keep a straight face. The Magistrate does try to help out the defendants out as much as possible, particularly if the defendants are self represented. They also try really hard to stop the defendant saying really stupid things that may be self incriminating. I’m impressed by how fair and helpful the Magistrate was in my case and also everybody else’s on the day I attended. She went out of her way to be helpful to everyone and I think she genuinely seemed to care and want a just outcome for all the defendants. She even granted me an adjournment till the 6 December 2023 which I was not expecting. I didn’t ask for that long, it was just the next available court date, these places are busy and it usually takes over a year from receiving a fine to a final hearing. I’ll claim the adjournment as a small victory, it was very helpful for me and much appreciated. I’ll cover why an adjournment is unusual and not normally granted in a traffic matter in a later post.
On a more serious note, my case is superficially similar to Auto Expert John Cadogan’s red light camera offence (video below), except in my case the alleged offence was captured on video, I’ll post details of my alleged offence in a future post. I’m hoping for success similar to John’s, however, in my case I’m innocent and pleading not guilty. One of the advantages of living in a surveillance state is almost every offence and conversation is captured on video. Sometimes surveillance can actually work in your favour. I think in my case it will. My vehicle was recorded on their in-car-video (ICV) and our subsequent conversation was also recorded on the constables “body-cam”. Let’s just say it doesn’t look good for the HERRO in this story.
I don’t actually expect to win, but the principle matters to me more than the money. I’m not facing a loss of licence, I have a unrestricted licence, with “no current convictions” so I still have 13 demerit points left to loose. The fine is only $478 from memory but it also results in 3 demerit points against your licence. However, the offence (if proven) or if you “just pay the fine” remains on your “criminal record” forever. I don’t want “running a red” to appear for a second time on my permanent record. In NSW traffic offences are technically criminal matters but are mostly not classed as “a criminal conviction” unless it’s one of the more serious offences.
For anyone thinking about defending themselves in court, I’d probably recommend against it unless you really feel strongly about it or your license/livelihood is at stake. As John says in his video above it will probably cost you more than paying the fine and take up a lot of your time. This is my fourth attempt at defending myself in court and I’d definitely have to say the odds are stacked against you. In one case, even with the assistance of a barrister (see below) and having excellent photographic evidence that I moved my vehicle (it was a parking ticket) and being in full compliance with the “parking rules” as I understood them. The Magistrate decided my barrister and I didn’t actually fully understand the rules and decided to not to accept our dictionary definition of “continuously” (which has no special legal definition). She chose not to define continuously and just said that our definition didn’t apply in the circumstances. I wanted to lodge an appeal in the District Court but my barrister talked me out of it as it’s only $114 fine from memory.
What’s the difference between a Lawyer and a Barrister?
Perhaps to explain it with more sense, their functions can be likened to your family doctor. When you get sick and it worsens to the point that it needs the help of not just one doctor, your family doctor will have to refer you to a specialist. In a legal situation, the family doctor is the solicitor and the specialist is the barrister. They have the same responsibilities as lawyers, but the barristers have more expertise in court proceedings.
All barristers (and solicitors) are lawyers but not all lawyers are barristers.
Who knows? Maybe in my current case the Magistrate will decide to redefine the meaning of “red”. Maybe red really is the new black. The law seems to me to read like Lewis Carroll’s, Through the Looking Glass:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
If you do decide to represent yourself a good guide can be found Local Court link below, it’s what I have used in the past, certainly no substitute for proper legal advice but it’s a good starting point, the NSW Bar Association often also has a volunteer Duty Solicitor/Barrister available most days at the local court court house to help you out on the day of the hearing. However, don’t expect that the duty barrister to defend your case for you, I feel I was extremely lucky that this happened to me on one occasion and he was a good bloke that wanted to help out a fellow motorist who he thought was genuinely innocent and unable to mount a proper defense on his own:
I’ll go into details of the case and why I’m choosing to defend the matter in a future post and plan to include what I’ve learn’t along the way. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve actually found a lot of information about traffic signals and traffic management that might be useful to someone defending themselves in court against a yellow or red light infringement in the future. I think you can most probably be found “not guilty” for a yellow light infringement just by the actual way the traffic lights are setup. I had a very detailed submission ready to go as I wasn’t expecting an adjournment, in the submission I tried to cover all the bases, including being found guilty of not stopping at a yellow signal. It’s a pretty comprehensive document which I don’t think I’ll need now that I have the video evidence to analyse. It would be a shame if no one can benefit from what I’ve learn’t whilst preparing the submission, it took me months of research and days to compile (it’s still a work in progress). I probably can’t go into too much detail about how I plan/ed to defend the case until the case is completed as I don’t want to give away my strategy, but I believe the prosecution’s case is very weak and I think I have a very good chance of winning. The prosecution case is purely circumstantial and a good lawyer would probably have had the case dismissed based on the police officers statement alone.
I’d also love to hear any advice, your experience in similar circumstance or any funny stories about your experience with the court system in the comments.
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Thanks for sharing this :-)) And good luck!
I wish all the best with this Ivo.