THE trial of a Tamworth woman who allegedly stabbed police while they tried to remove chickens from her Wilburtree St home will go ahead today, almost four years after the incident.
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Florence Amelia Vorhauer, 63, is alleged to have wounded two police as they tried to enforce a Land and Environment Court order in July, 1999.
The trial has been delayed by numerous appeals based on Mrs Vorhauer's belief that the courts in NSW do not have any jurisdiction to try her.
Her last appeal, to the High Court of Australia, was dismissed in March when the Chief Justice, Murray Gleeson, refused to accept any of Mrs Vorhauer's arguments that because there were Jews in the judiciary, they had no right to hear her case on constitutional grounds.
Mrs Vorhauer argued that as the Jews were recognised as a race, and the Chief Justice of NSW, Mr Jim Spigelman was Jewish, they were not considered as Australian citizens under the constitution.
Mrs Vorhauer is facing three charges arising from a clash with police and Tamworth City Council officers when they tried to remove hundreds of chickens from her home in July, 1999.
She is representing herself on the charges of using an offensive weapon with the intent to prevent a police investigation and two counts of malicious wounding with the intent to prevent lawful
apprehension.
Mrs Vorhauer allegedly threw a spear at a police officer and injured another officer as they tried to overpower her in the front yard of her home.
One senior officer had a tendon severed in the attack while a second had to have 12 stitches after being slashed across the leg.
The council was given authority to seize an estimated 370 birds after Vorhauer failed to limit poultry numbers to 15.
They called in the specially trained Oxley Operation Support Group after police and council staff were allegedly pelted with what was thought to be explosives.
The case has dragged on for almost four years with Mrs Vorhauer lodging at least nine appeals, the most recent in the High Court, in a bid to have it heard under Commonwealth Law.
Vorhauer has insisted she be tried under Commonwealth and not State law as she believes "the colonial Parliaments of the States are operating in treason to the constitution".
In court yesterday Mrs Vorhauer again attempted to have the case put before the High Court by asking that the trial be stayed until it considered her appeal for special leave.
She arrived in the District Court yesterday with a large case full of documents and spent the day engaged in legal argument with District Court Judge Blackmore and the Crown Prosecutor.
The case will resume today with the jury empanelled and more legal argument anticipated.
