Principal sexual assault trial: Auckland jury finds Joe Moncarz guilty of abusing student

Joe Moncarz, the former principal at Deep Green Bush School in Auckland, was charged with sexual abuse of a child. Photo / Supplied

The former principal of a rural South Auckland nature-themed private school has been found guilty by a jury of sexually abusing a young student.

Jurors took about four hours to reach the verdicts for Joseph Jacob Moncarz, 51, who was known as “Joey” to students at the Deep Green Bush School in Clevedon where he also served as head teacher. The school, which he helped establish and once promoted through extensive media interviews in New Zealand and abroad, is no longer in operation.

After the verdict, Judge Nick Webby ordered Moncarz, who had previously been on bail, to be held in custody to await sentencing.

Moncarz started his trial last week by pleading not guilty to eight charges of abuse involving a single student under the age of 12. Jurors returned guilty verdicts for seven of the eight charges - acquitting him of count two, in which he was alleged to have touched the girl inappropriately inside a yurt used for school activities as other students played outside the tent.

Suppression of his identity and the name of the school were lifted on the second day of the trial, but other aspects of case still cannot be reported for legal reasons.

During his closing address yesterday, Crown prosecutor Luke Radich said the trial was “unusual” in that it included the defendant’s own “critical admission” of inappropriate touching to an independent witness.

The woman, who was a parent volunteer at the school, said she had supported and admired Moncarz. She questioned him about the allegations just days after the student made an outcry, and she said he confessed to her that he had touched the girl and he was aroused by it.

“You might go to jail, Joey,” the woman recalled telling Moncarz, prompting him to reply that he was a “white male first-time offender”. He then made a joke about her bringing him chocolate and cigarettes in prison for him to trade, she said.

Moncarz later testified that he never said those things. While he didn’t think the woman was purposefully lying, he said she was reacting emotionally to the child’s outcry and it caused her to misunderstand his innocent explanation of what occurred.

Radich, however, described the woman’s testimony as “clear, fair, straight-forward, unassailable, independent” and having “an inescapable ring of truth to it” while Moncarz’s testimony, he said, equated to “contorted denials and interpretations”. He noted the defendant is a self-described playwright and actor who formerly lived in Los Angeles with the hopes of selling his scripts. His testimony, Radich suggested, had “a slightly performative aspect to it - and not an Academy Award one”.

It doesn’t make sense that the woman would have “lied in a very detailed and precise way to stitch him up for this”, the prosecutor said.

“That can’t be a misunderstanding,” he added. “That is just ludicrous. Come on, this is patronising and ridiculous.”

But defence lawyer David Reece suggested the Crown was overstating the woman’s testimony as “diametrically opposed” to his client’s. Moncarz did say he twice touched the girl on her upper thigh, but he explained it was an accident due to roughhousing instigated by the girl.

“She came to [the meeting with Moncarz] 99.9 per cent convinced of his guilt”, and that had a bearing on her accuracy and bias, he argued.

The parent volunteer said Moncarz admitted to more than touching the girl’s upper thigh, but Reece emphasised that she didn’t take notes of the meeting and was relying on her memory.

“People make mistakes about what words were spoken to them,” he said. “That’s not a criticism of [the witness]. That’s a fact ...

“Why is she ‘unassailable’ and not [Moncarz]? If you don’t know the answer to that you’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

While the parent volunteer might have been mistaken, the child was simply not being truthful with her allegations against Moncarz, Reece also argued. He urged jurors to “just look at the facts” and “be clinical”, which he acknowledged takes effort when it comes to allegations of child molestation.

He directed jurors to one point in the child’s testimony in which he said she was caught in a lie about another matter.

“The evidence of [the child] ... cannot be trusted and the evidence of [the parent volunteer] can be interpreted another way,” he said. “Mr Moncarz is a caring, calm and intelligent man.

“He can be trusted.”

At Clevedon's Deep Green Bush School, which is no longer in operation, students mostly spent their days outside. Photo / Supplied

The Crown disagreed with the characterisation of the child complainant. She never wavered in her allegations against the educator, Radich said, adding that unlike the playwright defendant she isn’t a young Anna Paquin or Jodie Foster.

“Doesn’t her evidence have the ring of truth to it?” he asked.

“She is a young girl telling about something that is very difficult for her. She is to be believed. Her story makes sense, it is consistent and it is supported by other evidence.”

Moncarz is an American who grew up in Florida before immigrating to New Zealand. In media interviews from around the time Deep Green Bush School was established, he was described as a former “mainstream teacher” who struck out on his own “after five frustrating years” in the New Zealand school system.

Students at the school were taught hunting and survival skills, while less emphasis was put on traditional subjects like reading and writing until individuals expressed an interest in the matters. The curriculum was controversial even among some of the parents, jurors learned during the trial.

“Mainstream education is based on the factory model and it doesn’t recognise the health and happiness of young people. That’s why there is so much bullying in schools,” Moncarz formerly told the Herald.

“It’s the kind of education I wish I had,” he told Newshub, describing schooling itself as a “social experiment” that is only about 150 years old.

Moncarz’s media presence has been substantially reduced in the years since he was charged with molestation, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. He has recently touted a supposed tell-all e-book about the school, set to be published later this month. In promotional material for the book, he suggests he was the subject of “four years of abuse” but does not mention the sexual abuse allegations against him.

He has also been a prolific writer of essays on his website, with subjects ranging from anti-vaccination to the dangers of 5G and genetically modified food.

“Your parents are full of lies,” began an essay published by Moncarz in September in which he argued that dismantling civilisation and distrust of government is the best form of environmentalism. “You could even say that your parents are gaslighting you. They’re trying to convince you of a reality that is not true.”