Richard Pusey, the man jailed for filming four dying police officers on the Eastern Freeway, will contest charges over an alleged road-rage incident, where he is accused of assaulting another driver and stealing his car keys.
Pusey’s 10-month jail term for outraging public decency and other offences will end in days but he still has several appearances before magistrates over other unrelated charges in coming months.
Richard Pusey (right) when arrested last year.Credit:Nine News
On Thursday, the 42-year-old appeared before the Neighbourhood Justice Centre via a video link from prison as a magistrate heard Pusey’s lawyers and police prosecutors had been unable to agree on resolving charges of unlawful assault and theft, stemming from an alleged road-rage incident on October 20, 2018.
Pusey is accused of assaulting the driver of another car and stealing the man’s keys out of the ignition during a dispute over a parking space in the Melbourne CBD.
CCTV footage previously played to court shows Pusey reversing a BMW into a Russell Street parking space and then another car, behind, driving into the space.
Pusey is seen getting out of his car, speaking to the other driver and then leaning into the open window and taking the man’s keys from the ignition. He then drives away.
Richard Pusey is charged with unlawful assault and theft over this interaction with another driver in Melbourne in 2018.
Defence counsel Vincent Peters said on Thursday he and a police prosecutor had been unable to resolve any of the matters over the two charges.
Magistrate David Fanning set the case for a contested hearing on August 23. A magistrate will decide whether Pusey is guilty or not.
Mr Peters previously told the court the other driver was aggressive towards Pusey and that Pusey thought it was appropriate to remove the key from the ignition. Pusey later dropped the keys at a police station, Mr Peters said.
Pusey was last week jailed in the County Court for 10 months for outraging public decency and other charges after filming the dying police officers in the minutes after they were hit by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Kew on April 22 last year.
A sketch of Richard Pusey at his sentence last week.Credit:Nine News
Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney were hit and killed when a truck driven by Mohinder Singh, addled by drug use and fatigue, veered into the emergency lane at 5.36pm.
The police had pulled over Pusey for speeding his black Porsche at 149km/h and were discussing impounding the car. Pusey was urinating at the side of the road when the truck hit the stationary cars and officers.
County Court judge Trevor Wraight jailed Pusey for three months on the outraging public decency charge and eight months for reckless conduct endangering serious injury, related to him speeding on the freeway a month before the crash.
Senior Constable Kevin King (left), Constable Josh Prestney, Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor and Constable Glen Humphris were killed on the Eastern Freeway.Credit:
When merged, the total sentence came to 10 months, which outraged Leading Senior Constable Taylor’s husband, Stuart Schulze.
Pusey’s sentence is expected to finish this weekend.
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