By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A MAN will fight drug trafficking and dangerous driving charges after allegedly ramming a police car parked behind him in a Springvale home driveway.
On 19 July, patrolling police officers saw Nasir Popal and two other people in the Holden in which what appeared to be a “large cigarette” was being constantly lighted, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
As police approached, Popal allegedly started yelling and screaming as well as shoving items under the driver’s seat.
When the officers requested to check on an unconscious female in the passenger seat, Popal reversed the car into the police vehicle, the court heard.
He then allegedly turned up the stereo and sounded the car’s horn.
After forcing entry into the car and deploying OC spray, police allegedly found two lots of suspected crystal methamphetamine on Popal’s person and in the car.
He was taken by ambulance to hospital due to his irrational behaviour in police cells, the court was told.
In December, Popal allegedly told a police interview that “gangsta rap and some bitch made me do it” when allegedly found in a black Audi with more than 20 grams of ‘ice’ and other drugs in a car park in Menzies Avenue, Dandenong North.
The seized items included two ecstasy tablets, nine suspected OxyContin tablets, ice pipes, digital scales and a butterfly knife hidden in a rear compartment.
In Popal’s pockets was a small amount of ice, digital scales and $2020 cash, police alleged.
After being charged with a petrol drive-off and cigarettes theft at a Clayton South servo on 5 August, Popal told police “I don’t answer questions”.
Popal’s lawyer said the accused, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis, had recently deteriorated after a break-up with his partner of five years.
He had been kicked out of his parents’ home after failing to undergo “appropriate treatment”, the lawyer said.
“He has significant mental health issues and drug issues which he instructs he is now willing to deal with.”
Magistrate Pauline Spencer said on 9 January that Popal faced a four-month jail term for trafficking and dangerous driving, followed by a community corrections order – if he pleaded guilty.
She said she needed to find out more about Popal’s underlying mental health – whether it was affected by schizophrenia or a drug-induced psychosis.
Popal, who had spent the past 11 days in remand, did not accept the sentence indication.
His lawyer told the court Popal would apply for bail, but Ms Spencer said it was “highly unlikely” she would grant the application without a treatment plan for Popal.
“It’s a lot of drugs you’ve been found with.”
