By KAREN PASCO
At 3pm on March 7 Judge John Brandts-Giesen took off his robe, placed it on the back of his chair, then walked out of courtroom two of the Invercargill District Court.
This symbolic act is the last that judges make when they sit on the bench for the final time.
Although he will not retire until next week, yesterday was the last day Judge Brandts-Giesen presided over a court.
Judge Brandts-Giesen's law career began in 1975, when, after graduating from Canterbury University with a bachelor of law and masters of arts, he joined Raymond Donnelly.
In 1980 he became a partner at Ronaldson Wylie Averill (latterly known as Lane Neave Ronaldson) before setting up law firm Brandts-Giesen McCormick Lawyers in Rangiora in 1994.
He was sworn in as a district court judge in 2016 and moved to Invercargill in 2017.
He officially retired in 2020 when he turned 70, but during the past three years has continued totravel throughout New Zealand as an acting warranted judge.
Yesterday morning members of the Southland Law Society gathered at a special sitting in the Invercargill District Court for his farewell.
Lawyer John Fraser said Judge Brandts-Giesen set a high standard of skill, dignity and humility in the role.
‘‘Your gentlemanly and level-headed manner will be missed,’’ Mr Fraser said.
He then granted the judge a discharge without conviction.
‘‘We collectively sentence you to unencumbered freedom and we wish you all the very best in your retirement.’’
As police prosecutor Carmen Stewart read out a summary of facts to those gathered, Judge Brandts-Giesen shed a tear.
‘‘May the Lord bless you in all of your days. Know that you helped people change their ways.’’
His career sentencing thousands of defendants has not been without controversy.
In 2016 he discharged a man without conviction for assaulting his wife and daughter, saying at the time while a nasty assault, it had to be seen in context.
The assault came after the man read love texts between his wife and his best friend.
There would be many people who would have done exactly what you did, even though it may be against the law to do so.'' On another occasion in he discharged a man without conviction for videoing a woman in a changing room.
`Women are probably more sensitive about that than men are, and that is something any mature male should appreciate,'' he said at the time.
Both discharges without conviction were overturned after High Court appeals.
Judge Brandts-Giesen did make mention of the controversy in his farewell speech yesterday.
He said he would not be remembered as a great judge unfortunately for a couple of words not eloquently spoken, adding that he would not retract them.
Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas interrupted his speech, rejecting the comment he made about himself. ‘‘I do not want you to leave this court saying that sir.
‘‘You were one of the few judges that came down to our place that liked it, that fitted in and didn't treat it as some sort of being sent to the Himalayas or something.
‘‘You are a good man and a good judge.’’ In reply Judge Brandts-Giesen said he had always had the benchmark set at what would Mary-Jane Thomas do? And that had probably got me into more trouble than I should have.
He congratulated both prosecutors, probation and defence lawyers on working hard for justice for both defendants and victims.
That is often an irreconcilable task and somehow we have to achieve it.
He did not think he had made too many enemies and had been a judge the media had enjoyed covering, he said.
‘‘So I say to you farewell. ‘‘I now go on as an ordinary citizen and that to me, in some respects, is a relief.’’
