Judge offended by gang member riding through cemetery but throws out novel ‘indignity to body’ charge

The police Eagle helicopter photographed Head Hunter and Tribesmen gang members riding their motorcycles through the Schnapper Rock cemetery on the North Shore in November 2021 despite the grounds being closed due to Covid-19 protocols. Photo / NZ Police.

A Tribesmen gang member who rode his motorcycle past the graves of WWII military veterans while wearing a Nazi-style combat helmet was deeply disrespectful, offensive and a “source of real outrage”.

But after making those scathing comments, a judge threw out the case against the 35-year-old who faced the rare criminal charge of offering an indignity to human remains.

He was arrested after a procession of motorcycles and cars descended on the cemetery at Schnapper Rock on Auckland’s North Shore in November 2021, at the end of a memorial ride to mark the death of his brother, Merc Maumasi-Rihari, a year earlier.

The unruly convoy was stopped by security guards at the gates of the cemetery, which was shut at the time because of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Defying the security officers, three of the group then mounted the kerb and rode their Harley-Davidson motorcycles through a gap in the wooden boundary fence, and into the cemetery grounds.

The trio then rode past nearly 30 graves, many of which are the resting place for military veterans, leaving deep track and tyre marks until they arrived at the gravesite of their fellow gang member.

The entire episode was captured by cameras mounted on the police Eagle helicopter, and after identifying the riders, the police charged all three men with offering an indignity to human remains.

There have been very few prosecutions of the offence in New Zealand, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

And it was deemed a novel approach in this case, as the charge is more often laid in cases where a body has been moved, or interfered with, inappropriately after death.

The prosecution of the three men - aged 27, 29 and 35 - had mixed results. None can be identified yet because of other pending criminal prosecutions.

The charge was downgraded to trespass for the 27-year-old, a patched Head Hunter, who pleaded guilty and was fined $200.

The 29-year-old, a patched Tribesman, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment this month.

But the 35-year-old brother to Merc Maumasi-Rihari pleaded not guilty at a hearing at the North Shore District Court in June.

At the end of the judge-alone trial, his lawyer Annabel Ives asked Judge Mina Wharepouri to dismiss the charge.

The defence lawyer argued that her client “carefully” rode his motorcycle in the middle ground between the row of marked graves, where a pedestrian might walk to avoid stepping on actual graves.

Whether the Tribesmen did so deliberately or simply by good luck, Judge Wharepouri wasn’t sure, but he accepted the gang member did not ride directly over an actual interned body.

“Had he done so it would have been well arguable that he had done an act directly to a grave which contained human remains, this being an important element of the offence,” Judge Wharepouri wrote in his decision released this month.

The police Eagle helicopter photographed Head Hunter and Tribesmen gang members riding their motorcycles through the Schnapper Rock cemetery on the North Shore in November 2021 despite the grounds being closed due to Covid protocols. Photo / NZ Police.

There was another shortcoming in the prosecution case.

The police accepted that the Tribesmen gang member was at the cemetery to visit his brother, rather than with intent to defile the graves.

“It follows that it is more likely than not that the defendant simply rode into the cemetery to make his way to Mr Maumasi-Rihari’s grave because he was either physically unfit or simply too indolent to walk the relatively short distance.

“It makes him foolish, selfish even and wilfully non-compliant, but his conduct including a blatant disregard for health measures designed to slow the spread of Covid-19 does not mean he was there with the intent to offer indignities to the remains of people buried at the cemetery.”

Judge Wharepouri said any reasonable member of the community would be “affronted” by the Tribesmen’s behaviour, and the judge himself found it to be “deeply disrespectful and offensive”.

“The fact that the section through which he rode was one occupied by the remains of WWII servicemen and women who fought the Nazis and fascism, while the defendant wore a German-style combat helmet from the same era, would have been a source of real outrage.”

But Judge Wharepouri said the existing case law in New Zealand and overseas was clear that the offence was intended to criminalise behaviour that causes indignity to actual human remains, “not in offending the living”.

The case was dismissed.

Hundreds of gang members and associates gathered for the funeral procession of Merc Maumasi-Rihari in November 2020. Photo / Supplied

The policing of large convoys of motorcycles in gang runs, or funeral processions, has come under the spotlight in recent years.

When Merc Maumasi-Rihari was killed in November 2020, hundreds of Tribesmen members and associates gathered on motorbikes, or in vehicles, to mourn their loss.

While the police were “monitoring” the procession, angry residents on the North Shore complained about dangerous driving, burnouts and blocked streets.

Weeks later, police issued more than 300 tickets for traffic infringements and laid charges against eight individuals.

Other gang-related funeral processions and convoys around the country have been handled in a similar manner.

The approach has led to division within the police, according to an intelligence report revealed by the Herald last month.

“Some police staff have expressed frustration at being asked to ‘facilitate’ gang runs, rather than curtail them,” the report said.

“Police activity to regulate gang runs is designed to avoid risk to the community, reduce traffic congestion and ensure the smooth flowing of gang-linked traffic.

“However, this is perceived by some staff and members of the public to be helping gangs rather than hindering their anti-social activity.”

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.