Jian Ghomeshi arrives at Old City Hall for Day 4 of his trial. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)
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Oh Lucy, you have a lot of ’splaining to do.
My bias admitted: As a woman, I so wanted Lucy DeCoutere to be a strong witness in the Jian Ghomeshi sexual assault case. After the first complainant’s story fell apart so spectacularly earlier this week, I wanted the Trailer Park Boys actress to show legitimate victims with credible accounts that they shouldn’t fear coming forward, that the system would treat them fairly, honourably.
As a successful actor and a captain in the military with a master’s in education, she was a smart woman who would certainly be able to hold her own against any defence lawyer, even the terrifying Marie Henein. I was pulling for her.
Sad to say, she let us down. But so, too, did the Crown and the police who did a disastrous job in preparing this case for trial.
Another cross-examination, another implosion. Once again, it was a series of retrieved e-mails, photos and even a handwritten love letter produced by Henein like a magician from her hat of tricks that showed that contrary to what she told police and the media, DeCoutere was infatuated with the radio personality and sought to see him often — even just hours after she says he choked and slapped her in his Riverdale home on July 4, 2003.
Ghomeshi, 48, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking, all related to alleged assaults against DeCoutere and two other women between 2002 to 2003.
Like the first witness who accused Ghomeshi of punching her, DeCoutere said she forgot about these multiple efforts to reconnect with the man who allegedly attacked her. “Memory is a funny thing,” she mused.
She acknowledged how difficult her post-incident conduct would be for others to understand.
It’s complicated, she said. It’s weird, she admitted. This was her way of trying to “neutralize” what had been a bad, inexplicable act by a man she found cool and funny. Her way of dealing with it was by pursuing him as a friend. “To make him more human to me,” she explained.
“When dealing with trauma, it’s not a straight line.” Look at abused women, she said, who continually go back to the spouses who hurt them.
But as Henein coldly pointed out, this isn’t the same. DeCoutere spent one weekend with the guy. They were never involved in a relationship. She was financially independent, they shared no children, she could have easily cut off complete contact.
Instead, she continued to send him flirtatious e-mails and raunchy photos. Just hours after the alleged assault, DeCoutere wrote: “You kicked my ass last night and that makes me want to f–k your brains out. Tonight.”
She sent him flowers after that supposedly violent date. She wrote a handwritten love letter: “We hooked up for dinner and you totally knocked me out,” the actress wrote, using language that made us wince. “I loved spending time with you … I am sad we didn’t spend the night together.”
And then DeCoutere signed off, “I love your hands, Lucy.”
“I love your hands” — seriously? Did she just allude to the very hands she said had been wrapped around her neck?
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As little as I care about JG it doesnt look good for the crown. If JG is exonerated at the end of the day does he have a case of wrongful dismissal against the CBC? If so its one arm of the governments incompetence setting up another incompetent gov org. Taxpayers are the only ones punished.
great. he can be a consultant for the liberal party. seems to be the current direction the federal government seems to be going towards instead of making decisions.
So far this case has been disgusting. Where is the Prosecution?
I note Jian greets his mother in the court room. Lets get her on the stand and establish if the fathers sins have fallen upon the son. Meaning, did her late husband beat the shit out of her during sex?
Is it just me or did I used to find Jian not only attractive but very sexy. Now I look at his photo and I see nothing but a creep. To top it all off, his female attorney is even Creepier looking. What a butch!
Only a narcissist like JG would hold on to 13 year old emails and “love letters”. Granted being a narcissist isn’t a crime but if you had an a-hole like JG in your workplace with the kind of stories of just sheer abuse of your co-workers that we’ve heard about probably more than enough reason to lose ones job alone, forget about the physical stuff.
Good lawyers can do wonders just look at the first OJ trail. Listening to one “expert” talking on the radio this week about the JG trail he estimates it’s cost JG about a grand an hour for Heneins services.
Regardless of the outcome of this trail, at this stage it sure looks like JG is gonna walk, Gomeshi is damaged goods. I highly doubt we will ever see him in the media spotlight again.
If you’re a pd would you hire him?
I know what I may have to say will be controversial but here it goes.
If he is cleared of charges in this situation then I truly believe be has full grounds in the wrongful dismissal case. He was accused of something and as we can clearly see the people accusing him kept contact after the alleged incidents. Therefore they came forward for whatever reason. Maybe as a way to get back at him for the rejection. Who knows. But if he cleared of charges then the case should proceed. Now for my next point if I were a PD and he came to me and there was a need at my station for someone of his talent I would hire him. Although knowing of the allegations against him I would put safeguards in place to protect people on the off chance this guy is doing his best OJ. But that’s my opinion.
Yeah I know it’s spelt “trial”.
The women are liars. You can sugar coat it in a thick syrup of political correctness but it doesn’t change the bitter truth. He’s a cad that took full advantage of his celebrity but the women by their own accounts were throwing themselves at him. They even conspired to get even with him when he lost interest. He is going to be acquitted and the entire case is a colossal waste of court resources. The prosecution should have questioned the complainants more thoroughly instead of getting blindsided when they were cross examined. This is as big a smear job as happened to John Furlong.
Have to agree with obiwan. I wonder if Vegas will give us odds on what this is going to cost the CBC? (read taxpayers). Maybe the CBC can sue the women for being less than honest when complaining to the mother corp.
You have to almost commend gomeshi for being able to go all summer knowing that the women wernt being exactly forthcoming.
If the judge defies the appalling omissions and possible collusion of the three complainants to find Ghomeshi guilty, his legal team will have ample grounds for appeal. If, as seems likely, Mr. G is found not guilty, all is not lost for the anti-Jian feminists. He faces a separate trial in June involving a fourth complainant. The fact that she was not combined with the other three suggests the Crown may have a much better case and did not want to jeopardize it by throwing her in with Miss Lucy and the two other lightweights.
Should Ghomeshi beat the rap on both trials, he may have a difficult time with a wrongful dismissal suit against the CBC. Labour lawyer Howard Levitt wrote a couple of columns on that subject for the National Post in late 2014, shortly after the allegations and firing occurred. The only complication, for the CBC, is that executives seemed to accept Jian’s assurances that his proclivities were consensual. Possibly, Ghomeshi’s alleged victims might have a better chance than he of suing the Mother Corporation for conveniently turning a blind eye.
Have to agree that his main lawyer Marie Henein has a baleful countenance. If I saw her coming down the street, I’d be scared enough to cross to the other side. Maybe Jian hasn’t said a word outside the courthouse out of fear she’d smash him upside the head. He seems the type who’d rather inflict a punch rather than take one.
Still, I do miss his dulcet tones on Q (or q as it’s now known). Yeah, we now know his show opening monologues were usually ghost written. But I have to think his interview banter was spur of the moment and sounded much more discerning and comfortable than successor Shad. Speaking of whom, Shad seems to be taking a lot of days off for someone who’s been permanently in the chair for less than a year. Whassup with that?