Porsche driver Richard Pusey to be committed to stand trial over Melbourne crash aftermath
A Porsche-driving mortgage broker accused of outraging public decency by filming a dying police officer has had several charges against him thrown out.
Richard Pusey is not charged with causing the crash that killed four police officers in the Melbourne suburb of Kew on 22 April.
But he is set to stand trial over four charges of outraging public decency, drug possession, reckless conduct endangering serious injury and reckless conduct endangering life.
The 42-year-old pleaded not guilty to the offences in Melbourne magistrates court on Wednesday.
Two other charges of perverting the course of justice, one each of destroying evidence, failing to render assistance and committing an offence while on bail were thrown out.
Pusey escaped injury when a truck crashed into four officers who had pulled the mortgage broker over for allegedly speeding along the Eastern Freeway at 149km/h.
His lawyer, Dermot Dann QC, last week did not dispute Pusey said “horrible things” as he filmed the crash aftermath.
Dann said the man had serious problems with his personal and social functioning, and had been “seriously overcharged” by police.
The court was told Pusey filmed the scene as he told a dying senior constable, Lynette Taylor: “There you go.
Amazing, absolutely amazing.”
“All I wanted was to go home and have my sushi and now you’ve fucked my fucking car,” Pusey is also said to have told her.
Senior Constable Kevin King, and constables Glen Humphris and Josh
Prestney, also died in the crash.
Pusey has made a second bid to be released on bail.
His trial is not due to begin before late 2022 because of the backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dann said Pusey had previously offered to undergo inpatient psychiatric treatment if bailed, but this was rebuffed.
Police want him to remain in custody. Senior Constable Aaron Price accused him of displaying an “incredible disregard” to the safety of others on the road.
Pusey is accused of having a device in his car to prevent the speed of his vehicle being measured.
He previously boasted to a mate about speeding 300km/h along the Eastern Freeway a month before the fatal crash, the court was told.
Price described Pusey as a “manipulative, controlling man” who harassed and verbally abused people when he didn’t get his way.
He is due to be formally committed to stand trial over the charges on Friday, when magistrate Donna Bakos hands down her bail decision.
Pusey has been slapped with more than a dozen offences overall, including several less serious or summary offences to be transferred to the county court alongside the trial charges.
The truck driver accused of ploughing into the police, Mohinder Singh, is separately charged with four counts of culpable driving causing death.