'Nonsense!': Judge calls out gang senior's claims to court

A judge has questioned the sincerity of senior Mongrel Mob man Desi Lee Jury's claims he is concerned about increasing intergang violence involving firearms in this region. Photo / Facebook

A judge has dismissed as nonsense claims by an  "aging senior gang member" that he had a Zoom meeting with rivals to discuss Gisborne’s problem of increasing intergang violence involving firearms.

Desi Lee Jury aka Hamill, 47, made the claim to the writer of a Section 27 Cultural Report, provided to Gisborne District Court for his sentencing last Friday on domestic and driving charges.

Judge Warren Cathcart said he accepted some parts of the largely self-reported document about Jury’s background and how it likely contributed to his criminality, but outright rejected some of the other content.

“The report writer suggests Jury is motivated to work on what he needs to in order to curb the cycle of offending and avoid imprisonment.

“That’s nonsense.

“It is also suggested that over a long period of time he has displayed some insight into his offending and wants to make life changes.

“That’s nonsense”

Also “nonsense” in the judge’s view was Jury’s claim he had had a Zoom meeting with senior Black Power members to address the issue of intergang violence involving firearms in Gisborne.

The judge said he didn’t doubt there’d been a meeting but he doubted Jury had any concern over increasing violence.

“Jury is no stranger to exaggerating circumstances to obtain forensic advantage,” Judge Cathcart said.

Jury is well-known to Gisborne police and the court here. He has distinctive facial tattoos and has sometimes publicly been named as the “captain” of the local Mongrel Mob chapter.

About three years ago he made national headlines after kidnapping a Gisborne District Council staffer.

Stranded in a broken-down vehicle on the side of SH35 after a tangi in Ruatoria, Jury orchestrated a highway blockade in which he and drunken gang associates stopped and forced the council employee to tow them back to Gisborne, using his company car.

Jury's domestic partner was issued a protection order against him in 1999 and in the 20 years or so of the couple's relationship, police have attended 22 family harm incidents between them.

Referring to a summary of facts about Jury's latest offending, the judge chuckled momentarily as he read Jury had tried to deny his identity to officers who were called to yet another domestic incident at Jury's partner's house.

On March 28 this year, he turned up invited, and tried twice to get inside through a sliding glass door.

The woman was at home with their almost-adult children. When Jury realised she was phoning police, he left but returned soon after and officers intervened.

He claimed he wasn’t Jury but someone living in a caravan on the property, and walked off into the backyard. However, he subsequently pleaded guilty to two breaches of a protection order.

About a month later, he was driving while disqualified and failed to stop for police patrol flashing lights behind him on Rutene Road.

As he fled, he drove on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, then the wrong way through the roundabout at Childers Road and Grey Street.

He drove through a checkpoint outside the police station on Customhouse Street and continued on at a dangerous speed to Ranfurly Street where he slowed to a stop.

However, when he saw the patrol car about 30 metres behind him, he reversed towards it. Police had to reverse their car at 50kmh for about 100 metres to avoid being hit by Jury’s vehicle, which got within two metres of it.

He drove off at speed through various residential streets before cutting through the Mobil service station on Wainui Road, on to Hirini Street and finally stopped without further incident.

Officers searched his car and found a file shaped into a sharp weapon, in the footwell of the driver’s seat.

Jury subsequently also pleaded guilty to failing to stop for police, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified for a third or subsequent time, aggravated assault on police, and possession of an offensive weapon.

He was sentenced to time served of 231 days with six months standard release conditions and a further driver disqualification — this time, for three years.

The judge reached the final sentence after having set a starting point of 16 months imprisonment for all the offending, but recognising the breaches of protection order as the lead charges.

There was a month’s uplift because Jury was on a sentence of supervision at the time and due to his extensive previous criminal history.

Discounts included a full 25 percent discount (four months) for Jury’s guilty pleas and two months discount for other personal matters.

Sceptical about the authenticity of some claims in the Section 27 report, the judge pointed, as an example, to those Jury made about the duration of his methamphetamine addiction.

Jury said he had used cannabis since he was aged 11, alcohol since 13, and had started using methamphetamine at 25.

While willing to accept addiction issues were an element behind the offending, there was no independent evidence to corroborate how long Jury might have been addicted to meth, the judge said.