A Melbourne courtroom witnessed significant disruption as technical failures compelled a judge to dismiss jurors in the fraud trial of former Australian Football League (AFL) player Nick Stevens. County Court Judge Fiona Todd expressed visible frustration and issued a formal apology to the dismissed panel for what she termed a ‘complete waste of your time.’
The case involves Stevens, a 12-season veteran who played for both Port Adelaide and Carlton during the 1990s and 2000s, facing serious allegations of defrauding six families from the regional Victorian city of Mildura. Prosecutors allege the 46-year-old received approximately $171,000 in payments for swimming pool installations that were either improperly executed or never delivered.
Stevens has entered not guilty pleas to 13 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception, four alternative counts of theft, and one count of using a false document. His defense counsel, Jim Stavris, had earlier urged jurors to carefully evaluate the evidence and consider Stevens’ intentions throughout his dealings with the families.
The trial encountered insurmountable technical obstacles when the court could not access video recordings containing witness examinations from Stevens’ previous trial, which had been aborted due to judicial unavailability. Despite efforts to resolve the issues overnight, the technical problems persisted into Wednesday morning, prompting Judge Todd’s decision to discharge the jury.
Judge Todd conveyed her dissatisfaction with the situation, stating she was ‘not particularly happy’ about the unnecessary inconvenience caused to the jurors. The case will now require empaneling an entirely new jury panel at a future date, resulting in additional delays and costs to the judicial system.