A criminal charge alleging that suspended Ottawa lawyer James Bowie extorted a client for oral sex in exchange for his legal services has been withdrawn by the Crown after the woman at the centre of the allegations testified over three days.
Leanne Aubin testified in court that Bowie had told her he’d have a criminal charge against her dropped as long as she didn’t tell anyone about their conversations. And, she inferred that the reverse was true: that Bowie would not get the charge dropped if she spoke up.
“The Crown conceded that in order to make out the extortion count, a more direct and expressed threat was required. And because that is not what the evidence showed, from what I understand, the Crown decided to withdraw that count,” said Aubin’s lawyer, Emilie Taman, on Monday.
It happened after Bowie’s defence raised the possibility of asking the judge to dismiss the charge because of a lack of evidence to back it up, Taman said.
She added that it had “nothing to do with any kind of assessment of [Aubin’s] credibility as far as the story that she told, which she stands by completely.” Aubin is disappointed but understands, Taman said.
Bowie, 41, has pleaded not guilty to uttering threats to kill Aubin to another woman, as well as harassing the other woman and trying to get her to obtain a firearm for him.
The other woman cannot be named. She testified last week, and the charges pertaining to her allegations and testimony remain on the record.
A publication ban on identifying Aubin was previously lifted at her request.
‘It could have ruined my life’
Aubin met Bowie in 2022, when she needed a criminal lawyer for the first time and an acquaintance recommended him, court heard.
She had been charged with assault with a weapon after she hit a man with a plastic beer pitcher during a dispute at a bar about whether Fidel Castro fathered Justin Trudeau. The man then picked up her smartphone and threw it at her face, breaking her orbital bone. The man was not charged.
“[Bowie] said that he could get my charges dropped, and if I was found guilty of the charges I would then lose my job, I would lose my house, I could potentially lose custody of my child. It could have ruined my life,” Aubin testified under examination in chief by assistant Crown attorney Kerry Watson last week.
Bowie eventually asked Aubin to communicate on Snapchat, a social media platform on which messages are deleted after they’ve been read, unless a setting is changed to delete them 24 hours after being read. Aubin testified that she didn’t take photos of their entire message history, only parts of it.
‘I’m propositioning you’
Some of the messages Bowie sent included:
- “How often do you crush lines? … Maybe we should. … I find it tends to get the party started haha.”
- “Come see me. I’ll give you the month off and I’ll hand you 200. That’s a 600 visit.”
- “How about this. Take a break from your instalments, but I get dibs on your rebound. Deal?”
- “Want to get dinner and just snuggle?
- “If a thousand dollars would change your life, that’s something we can do…. You’re crushed for money”
- “I’m talking about our deal, what we were talking about before, and I’m propositioning you. And you have a bf. So maybe later.”
Some of Aubin’s responses included:
- “Don’t think that’d really help with the whole mental health shit rn, do you? Lol”
- “I’m sorry. I just want to be alone.”
- “I told you before. I’d rather pay cash than head. Not something I’ve ever done before and as much as I’m desperate I don’t want to do anything I’ll regret. At least until I know [redacted] isn’t coming back.”
- “There’s nothing about trying to keep my life from crumbling that turns me on lol”
- “I don’t want to suck your dick and it ruin everything I’ve been working for.”
Spratt suggested law society complaint, lawsuit
Aubin testified that Bowie’s behaviour made her feel “worthless” and “disgusted,” but that she didn’t block or report him because she needed his help and thought no one would believe her. She was also afraid that if he could assist her with the charge she faced, he could decide to ruin her with it as well.
Eventually she asked a prosecutor in Gatineau for help. They said Aubin should look for a lawyer and Michael Spratt’s name came up online, so she reached out to him.
Spratt said he’d “been waiting to hear this for so long” when she revealed her complaint was about Bowie, she testified.
The defence asked Aubin if she was aware that there had been some prior bad blood between Spratt and Bowie — insinuating that Spratt may have been out to get Bowie — but Aubin said she didn’t know anything about it.
Spratt got the charge against her dropped, then told Aubin he thought it would be a good idea if she went to the Law Society of Ontario with her allegations and file a civil suit against Bowie (which she later won). Aubin testified she did not feel forced to do so.
She didn’t go to police. Later on, a detective called Aubin to tell her police had been informed that Bowie was trying to purchase a firearm to harm her, she testified. That’s when she told them her allegations.
“I was in disbelief. I just remember feeling kind of like the rest of the world faded away, I guess,” Aubin told court. She said she’s afraid to go out in public alone, that her father came to stay with her because of her fear, and that she doesn’t trust men.
Under cross examination by defence lawyer Eric Granger, Aubin testified that she never sent a nude photograph to Bowie showing a spider web tattoo on her chest, and that her tattoo isn’t of a spider web, but a design she couldn’t describe.
She said she replied “Oh nice” after Bowie sent her an image of his penis, but denied Granger’s suggestion that it was a “favourable” reply. She testified she didn’t know how to respond, and that it was kind of like saying, “cool.”
Aubin also denied the defence suggestion that Bowie’s Snapchat request to come to the office to discuss her case was just that.
“That is what it says but I don’t think that’s what he meant. Very rarely would we talk about the case, if at all, and there would be no reason for me to go to his office other than him wanting to do drugs or for me to perform oral sex on him. If it was about the case we could have easily spoken on the phone or received a message about it.”
Aubin denied defence suggestions that she was flirting with Bowie when he sent her a picture of his penis, but agreed she didn’t save screenshots of any of the other online messages they exchanged around that time.
Granger and co-counsel Hannah Drennan are expected to tell the court whether they’re calling evidence or not Tuesday morning when the trial resumes.