Lawyer James Bowie is guilty of harassment, blackmail, death threats

At the end of 2022 and early 2023, the Ottawa criminal defender James Bowie lost the life he knew.

His former client Leann Aubin had gone to the Law Society of Ontario and the media, with allegations that Bowie had offered her legal services in exchange with oral sex – and the personal and professional failure was overwhelming.

On Tuesday morning, Ontario's Court of Justice, Paul Cooper, found that Bowie in his attempts to regain “at all costs” at all costs “, the status and the control to which he had got used to, and he found him for harassment, blackmail and threats of death.

Cooper said Court Bowie wanted to go to Aubin, threatened to kill her twice in the presence of another woman, tried to get this other woman to get a weapon for him to “end” Aubin, and harassed the other woman criminal than she became afraid and tried to complain.

He followed her movements with tracking devices, called them out of several numbers, watched her house and sent her messages to answer after it had stopped answering.

The woman cannot be identified on the basis of a ban on publication.

Bowie remains on the bail before conviction

The crown had previously withdrawn a further extortion fee in connection with Aubins sex-for-services allegations. After Aubin's statement was not demonstrably a direct and express threat, it occurred that Bowie would file an indictment against her stick if she spoke about his proposal.

The data for the conviction process was not determined.

Bowie remains out of custody for deposit. The deputy public prosecutor Kerry Watson decided not to ask him to restore him in custody, and informed the judge Bowie that he had respected court resolutions.

The suspended lawyer testified to his own defense during the trial, and Cooper said that his behavior at the stand supported the wife's testimony, who described him as obsessive, inconspicuous and out of grace.

“This is the person I actually saw in front of me … I saw how he tried to have control while saying,” said Cooper. “He tried to comment on the credibility of others and even moved very close to the microphone in a answer to a question of the crown and whispered: 'I'm not crazy.'”

“Vulnerability is not a synonym for weakness”

Cooper found Aubin and the other woman reliable and credible witnesses.

He said the court that inconsistencies in what Aubin Court and the Law Society told about the existence of a message that was the sexual service contract were not essential and that other inconsistencies were low.

Bowie could not judge that Aubin, “who had suffered enormous loss and challenges, had” true integrity “. Cooper added that she” brave courageously in the hope of protecting others “.

As for the other woman, he accepted her testimony that she did not send two e -mails about an investigation that Bowie suggested to help him and that someone else used her phone to send her.

At the end of his judgment, Cooper said that Bowie had “misunderstood that [their] Vulnerability is not a synonym for weakness “and found it guilty as accused.

Bowie rejects a comment

Bowie got up. He had spent the last two hours leaning back in his chair, with a hand that was held up on his face, and closed his eyes when the judge told the evidence.

Outside the court building on Tuesday, Bowie refused to comment on CBC and CTV.

The lawyers of Aubins, Emilie Taman and Christine Johnson said they were proud of the other woman because they reported the courage over the threats against Aubin's life and proudly on Aubin.

“It is not easy to be a complainant in a criminal proceedings. We represent a lot of women in such procedures, and we usually don't have such days,” said Taman.

“I found that the most powerful words … were that the victimization is not synonymous with weakness and when we have transferred it [Aubin, she was] Only overwhelmed, collapses. It was a hard number of months for her, “added Johnson.