{"id":429285,"date":"2026-01-22T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429285\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:27:14","slug":"dion-prestia-steven-may-ask-for-assault-charges-to-be-withdrawn-over-sorrento-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429285\/","title":{"rendered":"Dion Prestia, Steven May ask for assault charges to be withdrawn over Sorrento fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Loading<\/p>\n<p>This included a witness statement, which claims neither Prestia nor May were present during the fight, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hargreaves said Victoria Police were considering their submission and asked for the case to be adjourned to February for a contest mention.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Alex Turner said the matter had just been referred to his unit and agreed to the adjournment.<\/p>\n<p>Prestia and May, who remain charged on summons, will face Frankston Magistrates Court on February 20.<\/p>\n<p>The pair, who started their AFL careers together at Gold Coast, previously released statements through their clubs proclaiming their innocence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not involved in the fight. I was not even physically present when it apparently took place,\u201d Prestia said, in a statement issued by Richmond in October.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Premiership Tiger Dion Prestia wants the charges withdrawn.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5a5c54049280340505b9d129b553e30b785a74aa.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Premiership Tiger Dion Prestia wants the charges withdrawn.Credit: via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI deny that I am guilty of these offences and will strenuously defend these charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne said May had advised them he was not involved, and he would \u201cstrongly defend\u201d the charge in court.<\/p>\n<p>Both AFL clubs are supportive of the players.<\/p>\n<p>Prestia is a three-time premiership player with Richmond, and won the club\u2019s best-and-fairest award in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>May played for Melbourne in the 2021 premiership and is a dual All-Australian player.<\/p>\n<p>AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loading This included a witness statement, which claims neither Prestia nor May were present during the fight, he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-429285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}