Cloverlea siege gunman Kovaleski stays in prison

A man who caused a city suburb to be shut down for the best part of two days, after pulling a gun on a police officer, has been declined an early release from prison.

Caleb Peter Kovaleski is serving three years and three months’ jail for a string of offences that brought the Palmerston North suburb of Cloverlea to a standstill in mid-2016.

He has been denied early release from prison because he needs to finish a drug-treatment programme.

On June 30 last year, Kovaleski pulled a gun on a detective who found him crouching in front of a car, before fleeing into Cloverlea.

Police locked down the suburb, with armed offenders squad members scouting through the neighbourhood until they found him in the ceiling of a house.

He had taken roofing tiles off the house so he could watch police as they searched for him.

Cloverlea residents came home to find doors and windows broken, property missing and holes in ceilings.

When Kovaleski was sentenced for using a firearm against police, unlawful possession of the gun and driving offences, Judge Lance Rowe described him as ‘‘the face of the methamphetamine epidemic’’, referring to his significant history of substance abuse.

Kovaleski became eligible for parole on August 2, and was seen by the Parole Board days later.

In a decision released to the Standard, the board made it clear Kovaleski had work to do.

His risk rating was towards the higher end, reflecting his nineyear history of criminal offending, accumulating more than 85 convictions, some for violent offending.

Most of those convictions were ‘‘substance-abuse-related’’, the board said.

The board was told Kovaleski had abused methamphetamine for a long time and supported his plan to complete a drug-treatment programme before moving on to the reintegration phase of his prison sentence.

His prison custody officer was full of praise for him, telling the board he had responded to all challenges.

He will appear before the board again by the end of April 2018.