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May 25th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
Senator Mary Jo Fisher outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court. Pic:: Greg Higgs
Source: AdelaideNow
POLICE should have to pay the hefty legal bill Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher incurred defending shoplifting and assault charges, a court has heard.
Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher was having a panic attack when she allegedly left an Adelaide supermarket last year without paying for groceries, a court has heard.
In the Adelaide Magistrates Court today, Michael Abbott, QC, for Senator Fisher, said his client offered to plead guilty to the assault charge on condition the prosecution would support no conviction be recorded.
However, senior prosecutors rejected that proposal and the matter proceeded to a nine-day trial.
In November, Senator Fisher was found guilty of assaulting a Frewville Foodland security guard in December 2010 but not guilty of stealing groceries.
She was discharged without conviction.
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Today Mr Abbott said the trial was “like no other” shoplifting matter that was dealt with by the courts in terms of duration and complexity.
“Prosecution asserts this case was not exceptional or unusual… The shoplifting charge was in a sense potentially determinative of my client’s career, of all that she worked for in her life,” he said.
Mr Abbott said that, were she convicted of shoplifting, Ms Fisher would have lost her parliamentary seat.
He said those potentially “grave consequences” elevated the matter beyond a normal magistrate’s court trial and therefore required more involved legal preparation.
“Given the severity of the consequences that would be visited upon Ms Fisher if she was to be convicted, it was essential that every step be taken for her acquittal on the charge of shop-lifting,” he said.
The court heard discussions between prosecutors and defence counsel also included the possibility of the charges being discontinued before the trial.
Mr Abbott said some police prosecutors were sympathetic to Senator Fisher’s state of anxiety and depression at the time of the incident, confirmed by a report from the Senator’s general practitioner from late December 2010.
He also said Foodland did not want to proceed with the matter because management understood the pressures on people with mental health difficulties from being in close proximity to Glenside mental health facility.
Mr Abbott has asked for all costs to be paid by prosecution, but prosecutors argued it was a win-win result for both parties therefore they should pay respective amounts.
Magistrate Kym Boxall said that both sides were the “extreme” scenarios and it was likely he would rule prosecutors pay for some of the legal fees.
The matter returns to court in July.
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