A foyer mihi whakatu before the formal ceremony, Judge Jonathan Krebs flanked by President of the Court of Appeal Justice Kos (left) and Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker.
A foyer mihi whakatu before the formal ceremony, Judge Jonathan Krebs flanked by President of the Court of Appeal Justice Kos (left) and Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker.
Longtime Napier barrister Jonathan Krebs has shared another moment of legal history in Hastings while being sworn-in as a District Court judge.
Judge Krebs led the Teina Pora case through the Privy Council in London to overturn Pora's conviction for murder, leading to New Zealand's largest wrongful-imprisonment compensation payout.
Teina Pora's convictions were quashed in 2015. Photo / NZME
The latest, on an afternoon most will also remember for the hailstorm hammering the twin cities, came with several unique moments.
Among valedictories were those of a Minister of the Crown and a young lawyer with barely 12 months at the bar, addressing a bench including the president of the Court of Appeal Justice Stephen Kos but presided over by Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker.
Judge Walker was standing-in for new Chief Judge of the District Court Heemi Taumaunu, who felt it inappropriate to officiate at such a ceremony before marking his own elevation at a mihi whakatau on a marae near Gisborne on October 19.
Minister of Justice Andrew Little qualified for an appearance on two accounts, as acting Attorney-General and, more-pertinently, as a Victoria University law school and student accommodation contemporary of the new judge, and his "cornet".
As for the rookie barrister?
Admitted to the bar before Justice Kos in September 2018, Harriet Krebs began her address before His Honour Judge Krebs by saying: "Counsel's name is Jonathan's daughter."
The ceremony was preceded by Judge Krebs' own mihi whakatu, with 150 family, friends, legal, courts and police staff, and local community leaders crowding the courthouse's upstairs foyer where he was effectively handed-over to the judiciary.
As both a prosecutor and a defence counsel, he had over the years appeared in more than 15 homicide trials, and 20 relating to methamphetamine dealing, but the most notorious would be his involvement with the freeing of Teina Pora, working with private investigator and former police detective detective Tim McKinnel, who was also present.
With Bay of Plenty Maori judge Louis Bidois and other judges present last week, both kaumatua Des Ratima and Hastings "ambassador" and District councillor Henare O'Keefe took their moment to urge better outcomes in the courts, as O'Keefe would say a more "fatherly" approach towards helping turn around such statistics and the lives of those dominating them.
Judge Krebs was well-supported, with his mother, wife, three daughters and his brother all present, along with Jonas Beermann, one of 10 exchange students the family had hosted over the years, who Judge Krebs said would get the prize for of all those present having come the furthest for the occasion.
