Prosecutors to fight Craig Thomson's bid to have magistrate, not jury PROSECUTORS will oppose former Labor MP Craig Thomson's bid to avoid a jury, after the embattled politician asked for a magistrate to be the sole judge on criminal charges against him. Lawyers for Mr Thomson, who is running for reelection in his seat of Dobell as an independent, have applied for the 173 charges relating to his alleged misuse of union funds to be decided by a magistrate instead of proceeding to a higher court.