From bar to bench: Napier prosecutor Jo Rielly becomes a judge

Jo Rielly as police prosecutor in 2003. She's now been appointed a district court judge. Photo /File

Napier barrister Jo Rielly has been appointed a judge of the district court and will move to Nelson.

The appointment has been announced by Attorney-General David Parker, and she will be sworn in as Judge Rielly at a special court sitting in Napier on June 11.

She is currently part of the Napier and Gisborne region Crown prosecution team based with Napier firm Elvidge and Partners, of which she is a partner.

Rielly was a police prosecutor in Hastings from 1994 to 2006, including being a police Eastern District prosecution services manager and attaining the rank of inspector in 2005.

She then joined Elvidge and Partners and now joins three of the firm's other former partners in the district court judiciary.

Judge Geoff Rea was Crown Prosecutor in Napier when he was appointed in 1995, initially to the Hamilton circuit but having been based back in Hawke's Bay for most of the 25 years, a milestone which will be reached on Saturday.

The others are succeeding Napier Crown prosecutor Barbara Morris, who serves in the Wellington area and who in June marks 20 years as a judge, and Judge Russell Collins, based in Auckland, was Crown prosecutor in Napier when he was appointed in 2012.

Another former partner, Jonathan Krebs, was in his own practice when he was appointed in August last year to be a district court judge based in Palmerston North.