A woman who started her day in the public gallery of a court ended up in the dock, charged with hindering a police investigation to conceal a crime.
Johnson Kokozian, 20, who's accused of driving a speeding high-performance car that crashed and killed two siblings, did not appear in Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday after being denied bail. But his 22-year-old partner Tiana Savignano did.
She sat in the public gallery as the court heard police were upgrading his charges on Wednesday morning.
She was then arrested as she left the courthouse with his lawyer.
Kokozian allegedly fled the scene after crashing a Mercedes-Benz AMG while travelling at nearly double the speed limit for the 50km/h zone in southwest Sydney on Friday night.
Police allege after the crash Kokozian, his father and Savignano discussed a cover story and made false reports to police.
Kokozian has been charged with aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death due to the alleged excessive speed
Alina Kauffman, 24, and her 15-year-old brother Ernesto Salazar were killed in the crash just 200 metres from their Heckenberg home.
Savignano returned to court on Wednesday afternoon, this time sitting in the dock, asking to be released.
A lawyer told the court on her behalf she would be willing to abide by conditions for bail, including not having contact with Kokozian.
“That’s not an easy condition for her … but that is a condition she is willing to abide by,” Savignano’s lawyer told the court.
Police prosecutors opposed Savignano’s release on the basis she could further interfere in the investigation.
Savignano allegedly called triple zero about an hour after the crash and gave a knowingly false report.
“The fact that she allegedly misguides police, in the early critical stages of this investigation (is) not only an egregious breach of community expectation, but of law,” the prosecutor said.
Savignano was granted bail with conditions including not to contact others linked to the case and to stay more than two kilometres from the crash site.
She is also banned from using social media and returns to court on September 26.
Among people she is ordered not to contact are Cruz Davis-Tuka, 21, who was also arrested at a Liverpool home and hit with similar conceal and hinder charges on Wednesday.
Davis-Tuka remains in custody until applying for release on Friday.