New Courtroom Defense: "That Wasn't Me In The Burqa"

Carnita Matthews (or maybe not).

Via Jihad Watch from The Daily Telegraph.

The dispute started last June when somebody dressed like Carnita Matthews in a burqa complete with face veil got pulled over by a highway patrol officer in Woodbine, Australia for a random breath test and was asked to show her face so the officer could check her identity against her driver's license photo. As the officer stated, "I'm looking at you and all I can see is two eyes."

After being pulled over, Carnita drove straight to the Campbelltown police station and filed a complaint against the officer, claiming that the officer, (a racist like all cops, she said) had forcibly tried to peek behind her veil. Moreover, she said, the cop had pulled over her car only because she was wearing a burqa.

Oops. The entire encounter had been captured on in-car police video, showing that Carnita's allegations were all lies.

Carnita's next step? Claiming that it was not she who had signed the complaint, but some other burqa-wearing person, making Carnita innocent of the charge of making a false complaint to police.

Matthews' lawyer Stephen Hopper said there was no way for police to prove that his client was the one who signed the statutory declaration at Campbelltown police station on June 10.

In Campbelltown Local Court this morning, Magistrate Robert Rabbidge dismissed Carnita's allegations as "both deliberate and malicious," and sentenced her to 6 months in jail to send a clear message to the community. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

[M]agistrate Robert Rabbidge said the evidence was "overwhelming" that Matthews had submitted a false declaration to police.

"There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew that the complaint she was making was false," he said.

Carnita's lawyers immediately filed an appeal, and Carnita has been released on bail, pending her appeal hearing.
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