In early 2019 our client’s gym was the subject of a Police raid, in which 11 clip seal bags each containing about 1g of cocaine and $13,100 cash was seized from a bag found behind the front counter at the premises.
Police submitted the clip seal bags for forensic analysis and our client’s DNA profile was recovered on 10 out of 11 clip seal bags. Our client was charged 13 months later after a review of the gym CCTV footage convinced Police that drugs were being dealt from the gym by our client. Quite incredibly, Police failed to take any statements from employees or members of the gym with a view to investigating the ownership of the bag containing the cocaine.
The prosecution case was riddled with deficiencies which we methodically exploited throughout the five-day District Court trial. Through careful cross examination of the prosecution witnesses we were able to undermine the flawed prosecution case and the impossibility of proving the legal element of “possession” of the cocaine.
The evidence which purportedly implicated our client in drug dealing rested largely on DNA evidence, a large cryovac bag with writing on it and CCTV footage which allegedly captured our client engaging in drug dealing. What the relevant portion of the CCTV footage showed, which the Police did not review, was our client’s grandfather delivering bringing pork cutlets in clip seal bags to the gym. As to the DNA evidence, there was a real possibility that transference of DNA could have occurred as a result of improper search methods and handling of exhibits by police executing the search warrant. The CCTV footage showed nothing more than an electrician fitting out the space for a new sauna in the backroom and our clients brother coming in to pick him up for breakfast.
After a lengthy trial, the jury took just 4 hours to deliver verdicts of not guilty, including one hour for lunch (not pork cutlets).
