Figured out the problem with the code in the Importer class, which Jamie confirmed. He had blogged the point of the code here. I missed that posting, but still would have need confirmation.

The id attribute in the criminal element can be given a non-Null value (strictly a varchar(31)) by SD when he knows both trials refer to the same individual. Both criminal elements must have identical values for the id attribute. The syncCriminals method in the Importer uses that information to remove the duplicate entry in the criminals table and reconciles criminal_id_fk's in other tables.
The problem was that the tables did not have a field to hold that information. I created a duplicate_label field of type varchar(31), and modified the Importer code to refer to that field.

I discovered a similar (though simpler) problem with the trials field. The importer code expects a case_reference field in that table, but there wasn't one, so I created one of type varchar(7). Jamie's instructions to SD are to use that when trials are in the same court session (), but in different trial_files, and he wants them associated (e.g. for a bunch of criminals tried for the same crime).
I don't see the code that handles that similar to the syncCriminal code, but the upload works.