A Youtube entertainer's producer wants to be tried by jury on charges he intimidated NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, a court has been told.
Kristo Langker, 21, was arrested and charged on June 4 after members of the NSW Police Fixated Persons Investigation Unit stormed into his Dulwich Hill home.
The arrest - described as "outrageous" by Langker's solicitor - was the latest in an unfolding spat between the friendlyjordies channel and the deputy premier, who is suing the channel's star Jordan Shanks-Markovina for defamation.
Langker wants his case to be handled by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and for there to be a jury trial, "if it progresses that far", barrister Emmanuel Kerkyasharian told Newtown Local Court on Thursday.
Pleas of not guilty were entered to both charges, stemming from events in Sydney on June 4 and Macquarie University on April 19.
Magistrate Glenn Bartley lifted some bail conditions on Langker including what his solicitor termed "a gag order".
A restriction on Langker not going within 200 metres of any place Mr Barilaro works was reduced to 100m.
But the magistrate declined to settle a dispute over Langker's want to go past NSW Parliament House on his way to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Mr Bartley said his court was too busy and Langker's lawyers had served evidence too late.
"He's not in jail, he can walk around," he said, adjourning the hearing to Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.
Outside court, Langker's solicitor said his client was innocent and intended to fight the charges "as high, as harsh and as vigorously as possible".
Mark Davis said arresting Langker in the first place was "outrageous" and police could have dealt with the matter by warning or a meeting at the police station.
"To invade in, to throw him on the floor, to put him in handcuffs and then to barge into his house - his mother is traumatised, as his girlfriend and for that matter his poor dog," Mr Davis told reporters.
"Anything can go wrong when you send in what is effectively a counter-terror unit for a very minor charge. Things can go seriously wrong."
Asked why he didn't like the deputy premier, Langker said it wasn't about liking Mr Barilaro.
"It's about doing journalism," he told reporters.
"I did stories on him ... (including one) that the Sydney Morning Herald picked up on. It's not about liking him, it's about holding him to account."
He held no concern for his own job but for those in the press pack that followed him out of the court building.
"What you're doing right now, which is a good job and a service to society, if the counter-terrorism wanted to, they should be able to arrest you based on the precedent they set arresting me," Langker said.
NSW Police last Monday it had not received a complaint over Langker's arrest.
Mr Barilaro is suing Shanks-Markovina over allegations aired in videos posted to YouTube in September and October 2020.
The NSW Nationals leader says he wasn't granted a right of reply and that the videos were racist and wrongly made out he was corrupt.
Australian Associated Press
