NSW: 'Not a lie, just a story', Liati tells court
By Katelyn John10 Feb 2009 5:55 PM
SYDNEY, Feb 10 AAP - When is a lie not a lie? When it's a story you've made up, of course.
And there's certainly a difference between the two, Angela Liati has told sniggering jurors as she defended herself against allegations she fabricated a story to get Marcus Einfeld off a speeding offence.
The laughter was audible in the NSW District Court on Tuesday as Liati insisted she had not lied to help the former Federal Court judge dodge a speeding fine.
Made up elements of her story, yes, but lied, no.
A speed camera snapped Mr Einfeld's silver Lexus travelling at 60km/h in a 50m/h zone on Sydney's north shore on January 8, 2006.
He told a magistrate he had loaned the vehicle to American academic Theresa Brennan, but police later discovered his old friend had died in February 2003.
Mr Einfeld later pleaded guilty to the speeding offence.
Liati became embroiled in the legal saga when she went to Mr Einfeld's lawyers and told them she was in the car with a friend called "Theahresa (Theahresa) Brennan" on the day in question.
In her statement she said she'd become friends with Ms Brennan, who was a "good friend" of Mr Einfeld's, while on a meditation retreat in the Blue Mountains in December 2005.
But as she took the stand in her own defence on Tuesday, Liati, 56, admitted she had fabricated part of her first "casual draft" version of events.
"I have no idea what happened on the morning of 8th January, 2006," she told the court.
"I put two and two together - maybe I was too hasty."
Under cross examination, she told crown prosecutor Lou Lungo she'd written "whatever came into my head" about her meeting with Ms Brennan, including that they'd met at a meditation centre, not a coffee shop as she now claims.
Mr Lungo had to replay an interview with Macquarie Radio's Chris Smith twice before Liati would admit she told him she could "verify" check-in details at the meditation retreat.
Even then, she would not admit that she had lied.
"No, it was not a lie, it was a story I made up," she told the sniggering jury.
"Do you know what the meaning of a lie is?" Mr Lungo asked her.
"There are two sort of lies - intentional lies, and unintentional lies," replied Liati, who is defending herself and has pleaded not guilty to making a false statement to police.
Liati told the court she had fabricated facts in her first statement to Mr Einfeld's lawyers in order to gain a meeting with the judge.
She said she was outraged the lawyers then handed her statement over to police, despite signing a document authorising them to do so.
"This was not a statement - this was just a tool to get them (the lawyers) to put me in touch with Mr Einfeld," she said.
"I wanted to ascertain whether it was in fact the same date, the same lady ... whether there were other occasions when he lent her the car.
"I didn't know, and he was the only one who had that information."
Liati also told the court she was in a "frantic frame of mind" when she gave her statement to the lawyers, as a result of turmoil in her personal life.
She will continue being cross-examined on Wednesday when the trial, before Judge Michael Finnane, continues.
