Judge Michael Behrens. Photo: Supplied
Judge Michael Behrens 25 July 1941-1 February 2025
He was a colourful man, with a colourful career, who also happened to look a bit like Charles Manson.
Judge Michael Behrens cut an impressive figure in the courtroom during his 10 years as a District Court Judge in Wellington and in the many decades prior as a defence attorney in Palmerston North.
He was renowned for his involvement in some of the country's most high profile criminal cases but also earned a reputation for his compassion and fierce commitment to the law.
Having faced off innumerable times since the 1980s, Crown Prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk says his longtime colleague and frequent opponent was a rare talent.
"He personified what conscience in the practice of law meant and as an adversary his description and advocacy of what beyond reasonable doubt means, to a jury and to a judge ... was one of the finest versions I've heard."
He said very few lawyers could achieve such a fine explanation.
Born to mostly Irish stock, mother Rene Gillooly and father Fred Behrens, Michael (Mike) Behrens was one of four children and the second in a pair, arriving shortly after his twin sister Gerardine in 1941.
Growing up near the Griffth factory in Lower Hutt, Behrens spent most of his youth in Wellington before moving to Dunedin after his marriage to Ann Axford, who would be his wife of 62 years.
There, he simultaneously studied law and joined the Army Reserves, rising to the rank of Lance Coporal and successfully dodged the Vietnam War with the birth of his son Anthony in 1964.
Daughter Jane arrived in 1968 - by which time the family had moved to Palmerston North where Behrens was practising law - tagically, she died in a road accident in 1985.
During his career as a defence attorney - which was on and off from 1967 - he was involved in several high profile trials, including that of disgraced detective Brent Garner who claimed he was tortured by a Satan-worshipper in 1996 and left to die in his burning house, and those of Mark Lundy who was convicted of killing his wife Christine, and daughter Amber in 2000.
Anthony Behrens said his dad never talked about Lundy's guilt or innocence but said he was adamant that the police's representation of what happened was impossible.
Behrens was appointed a QC in 1999 and in 2004 as District Court Judge where his humour was often on display and captured by the media.
In 2007 the Dominion Post wrote that, "Judge Mike Behrens, QC, proved even the law has a sense of humour in Lower Hutt District Court, when a young man appeared before him accused of baking "hash cookies", which he told police he baked himself. His lawyer told Judge Behrens that though the man had been unemployed at the time he was arrested, he had since secured a job, to which the judge asked: "As a baker?"
Anthony Behrens said his father had remarkable empathy and saw the humanity in people - he was equally at home in the courtroom as he was in the Mongrel Mob headquarters.
In his decades-long career his father reckoned he encountered only a handful of 'truly evil' people. But Anthony Behrens said his dad's affinity with the downtrodden took a strange turn in the 70s.
"There's this amazing photograph, where he looks like Charles Manson.
"He's got long black hair, a big bushy black beard, those dark eyebrows ... he looked like the guys he was defending."
Judge Michael Behrens. Photo: Supplied.
He said his father wore the iconic and scruffy look with pride and in protest of what he saw as the police's racial and appearance-based discrimination.
He says his dad did a decent job of balancing his work and family life, although that didn't stop his work coming home - which reached a particularly memorable peak one Christmas dinner.
"Two guys turned up and they'd murdered someone, it was probably one Palmerston North's most brutal. They were on the run and came to the door and Mike said, 'We're having dinner, would you like to come in?'
"One of the guys says, 'I'm really good at making gravy, my mum taught me.' So this guy made us gravy .... and he probably had literal blood on his hands. Then we all sit down and have Christmas dinner."
Anthony Behrens said the absence of cellphones in the 70s and 80s meant people had to get creative in their communication and passing messaged would often become a family affair.
"If police were after one of your clients you had to put the word out through their mothers or brothers or whoever that things were about to get messy.
"We spent a lot of time traipsing around town waiting outside gang houses."
He believes his father's investigation into a death at Lake Alice Hospital and his fight against the rugby union during the Springbok Tour - which saw him spat on and bomb threats arrive at home - led to him stepping away from law for a few years, but his time as a reporter and sub-editor at the Manawatu Evening Standard didn't last forever.
After retiring as judge on his 70th birthday Behrens received a temporary warrant to continue until he was 72, after he which he returned to the law as a Parole Board Judge.
At the end of his colourful life and storied career Anthony Behrens said his father was most proud of his friendships.
He said many of those friends will be speaking at Friday's service in Palmerston North, but not too many.
"Mike hated waffle and open mics at funerals ... so we're under strict instructions: No open mic."
A contingent of the Mothers motorcycle gang is expected to escort Michael Behrens from the funeral home to his final resting place at the Kelvin Grove Cemetery.
