In late 2022 and early 2023, Ottawa criminal defence lawyer James Bowie was losing the life he knew.
His former client Leanne Aubin had gone to the Law Society of Ontario, and to the media, with allegations that Bowie had offered her his legal services in exchange for oral sex — and the personal and professional fallout was overwhelming.
On Tuesday morning, Ontario Court Justice Paul Cooper found that Bowie had stooped to criminality in his attempts to regain “at all costs” the status and control to which he had become accustomed, and found him guilty of harassment, extortion and twice uttering death threats.
Cooper told court Bowie wanted Aubin dead, threatened to kill her twice in the presence of another woman, tried to get that other woman to obtain a gun for him “to end” Aubin, and criminally harassed the other woman when she became afraid and tried to ghost him.
He followed her movements with tracking devices, called her from multiple numbers, watched her house and continued to send her messages after she stopped replying.
The woman cannot be identified because of a publication ban.
Bowie remains on bail ahead of sentencing
The Crown had earlier withdrawn another extortion charge related to Aubin’s sex-for-services allegations. It came after Aubin’s testimony failed to establish evidence of a direct and expressed threat that Bowie would make an assault charge against her stick if she talked about his proposition.
Dates for the sentencing process have not been set.
Bowie remains out of custody on bail. Assistant Crown prosecutor Kerry Watson decided not to ask for him to be brought back into custody, and told the judge Bowie has respected court orders.
The suspended lawyer testified in his own defence during the trial, and Cooper said his behaviour on the stand backed up the testimony of the woman who described him as becoming obsessive, unhinged and falling from grace.
“This is the person I actually saw before me…. I saw him attempt to have control while testifying,” Cooper said. “He tried to comment on the credibility of others, and even moved very close to the microphone in a response to a question from the Crown, and whispered, ‘I am not crazy.'”
‘Vulnerability is not a synonym for weakness’
Cooper found Aubin and the other woman to be reliable and credible witnesses.
He told court that inconsistencies in what Aubin told court and the Law Society about the existence of a message outlining the sex-for-services deal were not material, and that other inconsistencies were minor.
Bowie failed to assess that Aubin, “who had suffered tremendous loss and challenges,” had “true integrity.” Cooper added that she “courageously went public with information in the hopes of protecting others.”
As for the other woman, he accepted her testimony that she didn’t send two emails to Bowie about an investigation Bowie suggested she was helping him with, and that someone else may have used her phone to send them.
At the end of his verdict, Cooper said Bowie had “misunderstood that [their] vulnerability is not a synonym for weakness,” and found him guilty as charged.
Bowie declines comment
Bowie stood up. He had spent the previous two hours mostly leaning back in his chair with one hand held up to his face, rubbing and closing his eyes as the judge recounted the evidence.
Outside the courthouse Tuesday, Bowie declined to comment to CBC and CTV.
Aubin’s lawyers Emilie Taman and Christine Johnson said they were proud of the other woman for her courage in coming forward about the threats against Aubin’s life, and proud of Aubin, too.
“It is not easy to be a complainant in a criminal proceeding. We represent a lot of women in proceedings like this, and more often than not, we don’t have days like this,” Taman said.
“I found that the most powerful words … were that victimization is not synonymous with weakness, and when we conveyed that to [Aubin, she was] just overwhelmed, breaking down. It’s been a hard number of months for her,” Johnson added.