Sometimes it is just tragic what befalls a genuinely decent person because of their own actions. Take Rob Moodie, the Fielding lawyer. A small item (not online) in the latest National Business Review says he has mortgaged his home to pay a $5000 fine and $32,000 in costs awarded to the Crown after he was found guilty of contempt of court for publishing the so-called Butcher Report on the “Berryman bridge” affair on the Internet.
Dr Moodie is among the most wonderfully eccentric, generous, kind-hearted people I have met. He has always been this way. He began his working career as a policeman in the 1960s, before becoming secretary of the Police Association, then a goat farmer, and mayor of Manawatu for a term. For most of this past decade he has worked as a lawyer, achieving a stunning victory for justice by winning the reinstatement as a senior police officer of Alec Waugh, the former Wanganui district commander who was disgracefully drummed out of the force on a trumped-up fraud charge that amounted to a private toll call on a police telephone.
Rob Moodie is a man who brims with enthusiasm. His eyes twinkle with mischief. He defies all stereotypes. A happily married man, he astonished Wellingtonians in the 1970s by striding the streets wearing what appeared to be female attire. The media tactfully said he wore kaftans. He claimed they were dresses. The man had style.
But he has come, sadly, to grief in his pursuit of justice in the Berryman bridge case. This concerns the 1994 death of beekeeper Ken Richards, whose ute plunged into a river through a rotten suspension bridge on the remote King County farm of Keith and Margaret Berryman. The subsequent inquest blamed the Berrymans for the death, saying they should have maintained the bridge better. They were forced to sell their farm and live in bitter retirement in Wanganui.
The collapsed bridge was built by the army as a training exercise for its engineers and soldiers. Rob Moodie, who took on the Berrymans’ case, discovered the army and the Crown had kept secret from the coroner a report by retired army colonel and engineer George Butcher, which said the bridge collapsed because the soldiers who built it failed to “flash” the untreated timber it was made from. Though Keith Berryman is not totally blameless for the bridge collapse, the High Court was nonetheless extraordinarily unjust in a decision to refuse Dr Moodie leave to introduce the Butcher Report as evidence into an action seeking a new coronial hearing. Dr Moodie responded by putting the report on the Internet and accusing the Crown and the army of corruption. He was charged with contempt of court, to which he reacted by dressing as a woman, complete with handbag, and insisting on being called Miss Alice in court, to make the point, he said, that the affair was straight from Alice in Wonderland. He engaged veteran Wellington civil liberties lawyer Tony Ellis, another wonderfully warm-hearted man, to represent him, then refused to pay his legal fees. So as well as being messy, it became very, very sad.
Dr Moodie appears to have lost much of his sense of proportion over all this. He has become a tragedy in his own larger-than-life. It is awful to see. I hope he finds it again, soon, as the Berryman case is not yet finished. The High Court is pondering, at great length, another request for a second inquest into the death of Mr Richards, and in June, it is scheduled to hear a $4.5 million misfeascance suit against the army brought by Dr Moodie on behalf of the Berrymans. May he still shine again.
6 Comments
February 26, 2008 at 8:58 am
One could say that other justice campaigners have also lost their “sense of proportion” in their devotion to their cause. The same was said of those who fought for justice on behalf of Arthur Thomas, and more recently Joe Karam on behalf of Bain. It may be “awful to see” to you, but I doubt that Dr Moodie himself considers his situation a tragedy.
You have reported yourself, and rightly praised Maryanne Garry and Harlene Hayne for initiating the Innocence Project in New Zealand. I think it’s perhaps more of a tragedy that justice for some individuals in New Zealand relies on the determination of personal advocates or voluntary Innocence Projects, than justice can rely on our legal system.
Without commenting on his legal and financial wrangle with Tony Ellis, which I have not followed, I consider that Dr Moodie can hold his head high in fighting the obvious injustice that he has not been permitted to use the Butcher report as evidence.
The financial costs may indeed have been excruciatingly high for Dr Moodie, but that depends on the value he places on his name, and his willingness to fight injustice. Some men spend fortunes on material possessions. Who are we to judge the “tragedy” of spending money on a cause without a material outcome?
I share the generous and kind opinion that you have expressed about Dr Moodie. I have the utmost respect for him, and I think (and hope) that history will treat his name extremely well.
February 26, 2008 at 10:14 am
I agree with Brian’s comments.
Poneke, you seem to have a particular interest in the Peter Ellis case, as do I. I would never describe your interest as tragic. What happened to Ellis is the real tragedy. It is a blight on our system of justice and needs to be looked into. Those fighting to clear his name should be commended, not criticised.
February 26, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Um, I would love to be pointed to where I have criticised those who fight to clear Peter Ellis.
Rob Moodie, who I have also never criticised, but admire greatly, has had no involvement that I know of with the Ellis case, and I do know Rob reasonably well and follow his career with keen interest.
February 26, 2008 at 6:50 pm
It’ll probably get worse for Moodie. Given the Berryman’s track record they’ll be suing him soon folowing the June hearing.
February 27, 2008 at 10:36 am
You say you’ve never criticised Rob Moodie. So what about your comment: “Dr Moodie appears to have lost much of his sense of proportion over all this. He has become a tragedy in his own larger-than-life”?
[Poneke adds: That is criticism? Not in any negative sense. I feel quite sad about him, he is one of the nicest people I have met and I don't like to see him in this kind of pickle. When are you going to say where I criticised the supporters of Peter Ellis?]
February 27, 2008 at 12:25 pm
“When are you going to say where I criticised the supporters of Peter Ellis?”
I never said you did. I said ” you seem to have a particular interest in the Peter Ellis case, as do I. I would never describe your interest as tragic.” Yet, that is exactly the label you have put on Moodie.