A judge has dismissed charges against a Nine News reporter accused of impersonating a police officer, and has ordered the costs of the court battle to be covered by police.
Key points:
- Reporter Georgie Dickerson pleaded not guilty to the charge
- The service station worker maintains Ms Dickerson said she was from NT Police
- Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris said the prosecution’s case failed
Darwin reporter Georgie Dickerson, 26, pleaded not guilty to the charges, with the prosecution alleging she told a service station supervisor that she was from NT Police in order to obtain CCTV footage of a citizen’s arrest the night before.
She has continued to appear on the nightly news since the charges were laid.
CCTV footage — which had no sound — played to the court showed Ms Dickerson entering the United Service Station in Holtze on October 17, 2022, and walking to the counter.
The footage showed a 15-20 second interaction between the reporter and the supervisor of the service station, Sameer Devkota, before he points to the side and allows her behind the counter to view the footage.
It is what took place in these brief moments that have been at the centre of a court battle that ended on Friday.
Last week, during cross-examination, Mr Devkota told the court he had been expecting police to visit that day to obtain a copy of the footage, and that when Ms Dickerson turned up requesting it he asked her where she was from.
“She said NT Police,” he told the court.
On Friday, the court was shown text messages between Ms Dickerson and Channel Nine camera operator Emily Plester from the day in question.
“He’s letting me look at it,” Ms Dickerson messaged Ms Plester.
“F*** yeah, should I bring a camera in?” Ms Plester replied.
“Glad I didn’t bet my life on it lol … Na ill film on my phone … It’s such a small space I don’t want him to freak out,” Ms Dickerson replied.
The court heard Ms Plester and Ms Dickerson had driven to the service station together, and while the camera operator unpacked her gear and headed to the front of the station to get shots of the exterior, the reporter went inside to ask for CCTV.
She told the court Ms Dickerson had gone into the station “not thinking that she was going to be able to get access to it”.
“We don’t normally get CCTV from franchises,” she said.
“The general expectation going into jobs like these is that we’re not going to get the CCTV, but we approach it with a ‘no harm in asking’ approach.”
NT politician also accessed footage
The court heard that the next day NT Member for Blain Mark Turner Ý who had performed the citizen’s arrest — was also given access to the CCTV footage by Mr Devkota after showing his government ID.
While he was there, now-retired NT Police officer Wayne Tilly showed up in uniform to get a copy of the footage legally, today telling the court he was informed “someone else had told staff they were a police officer” to get the footage, sparking the investigation.
In closing submissions, crown prosecutor Tamara Grealy told the court the service station worker’s evidence was “critical” to their case.
She said his evidence that Ms Dickerson told him she was “from NT Police” was consistent and unwavering throughout cross-examinations.
She said there was “nothing in their body language that showed they had trouble hearing or understanding each other” and questioned why he would expose himself to a criminal penalty over a false statutory declaration.
“The defendant is a journalist who is keen to get to the bottom of stories of public interest,” Ms Grealy said.
“In the crown’s submission, it’s not a far cry for somebody who is thorough and keen and willing to get to the bottom of something, to use my friend’s phrase, to tell a silly little lie to get a story.”
Ms Dickerson’s lawyer Mary Chalmers ended her case by arguing that Mr Devkota was problematic as a witness because of “issues going to credibility and reliability”.
After a short deliberation, Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris found that the text messages between Ms Dickerson and Ms Plester revealed in cross-examination were “not corroborative of any subterfuge”.
She also said she could not exclude evidence that Mr Devkota had misheard what Ms Dickerson said.
“When I consider all of the evidence, it is clear that at the time of that particular exchange Mr Devkota was distracted,” she said.
“He’s busy, he is also wearing at least one headphone, and I think he’s speaking to Ms Dickerson through Plexiglas.”
Ms Morris said it was “extraordinary that Mr Devkota claims … that he was not aware that she was not a member of the police force”.
The chief judge said there was “no evidence of a fake badge, no uniform or appearance of authority”, and that the prosecution had not proven its case.
“The case fails … Ms Dickinson is not guilty of the charges,” she said, ordering NT Police to pay Ms Dickinson’s costs.