The Supreme Court has dismissed Kevin Tracey’s appeal in a judicial review challenge arising from preliminary proceedings over summonses for alleged careless driving. It affirmed the High Court order refusing judicial review; it did not decide the underlying driving allegations.
The appeal concerned District Court rulings made while arrangements were being made for the summonses to be heard. Tracey challenged, among other matters, limits placed on his cross-examination of a Garda witness about service of the summonses, the refusal to state a case to the High Court, and the fixing of a hearing date. The Supreme Court judgment said the District Court proceedings were procedural, not a trial of the charges.
Tracey also alleged that his friend, Eoin Rice, who had been assisting him, was arrested during the proceedings and that papers were taken. The High Court heard oral evidence and considered affidavits about the incident. It accepted Garda evidence that Rice was arrested in a corridor under a warrant issued in 2004, and rejected Tracey’s and his wife’s accounts of how and where the arrest took place. The High Court also found that the incident did not disadvantage Tracey in continuing the preliminary proceedings.
The Supreme Court said those findings were supported by evidence and were binding on the appeal. It also upheld the District Court judge’s control of cross-examination, noting that questioning had moved beyond the issue of service and into matters it considered irrelevant. The court said there was no legal uncertainty requiring a case to be stated to the High Court.
The appeal was dismissed and the High Court order affirmed. The judgment did not determine whether Tracey committed the alleged driving offence; it said that issue was for the substantive proceedings.