THE trial of Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell will be held in the District Court after Judge Peter Brebner rejected an application from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have the matter transferred to the Supreme Court.
Judge Brebner said the case was “not complex” enough to warrant being heard in the Supreme Court.
He also cited the lack of Supreme Court Judges to hear the trial in the near future.
However, Judge Brebner reserved his decision on whether the trial will be held in the Adelaide District Court or remain in Mount Gambier.
Facing 20 counts of theft and six of dishonestly dealing with documents, Mr Bell, 45, was excused from attending Friday’s hearing in the Adelaide District Court.
The court heard Bell will face trial charged with the theft of more than $800,000 while uncharged acts will total at least $1.4m.
The trial could take up to three months to complete Defence counsel Bill DeGaris appeared via video-link on behalf of Mr Bell, 48, for continued submissions in relation to the DPP application to have the trial held in Adelaide.
In previous hearings, Judge Peter Brebner expressed “tentative views” about the application after making observations of the Mount Gambier District Court facilities.
On Friday, he addressed previous matters raised by the DPP about the difficulty of empanelling a jury in Mount Gambier.
Mr Degaris argued the jury pool would consist of around 45,000 people from Mount Gambier and surrounds.
He accepted that Mr Bell represented around 25,000 of those people as the Member of Mount Gambier.
“The available pool is a much larger pool than the DPP originally proposed,” Mr Degaris said.
“There’s no reasons to suppose he has a higher profile in the Mackillop electorate, which is next door, as he does down here, but we do concede he does at least have a profile.
Mr Degaris also raised concerns about Mr Bell being left with financial and emotional strain if the case was moved.
“It is economically unfair, along with the emotional impact of being away from his family for such a long period of time which is a factor that should not be ignored,” Mr Degaris said.
He also argued a decision should not be made until it is clear how many documents will actually make it to trial.
With a potential for thousands of documents to reach trial, the DPP and Judge Brebner have raised concerns about the space in the courtroom to hold the volumes.
Judge Brebner believed the size of the layout of the courtroom did not provide a great amount of space to have temporary shelving.
Mr Degaris disputed those claims, citing a number of areas of unused space in the courtroom.
He also encouraged Judge Brebner to wait until after a pre-trial conference to make a decision as the total volume of material to be tendered may end up reducing significantly.
Judge Brebner reserved his decision on the application until a later date.
