Manitoba judge, husband, law firm face lawsuits

A Winnipeg judge, her lawyer husband and a prestigious law firm are being sued for a total of $67 million by a man who claims he was harassed and suffered emotional distress when he was pressured to have sex with the lawyer's wife.

The complainant, computer specialist Alexander Chapman, 44, alleges Winnipeg family lawyer Jack King, 64,harassed him in 2003 by pressuring him to have sex with his wife, Lori Douglas, who was a lawyer at the time.

Douglas, who is now associate chief justice of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench (family division), is still married to King.

On Wednesday, Chapman filed separate suits against King for $10 million and against Douglas for $7 million.

He is also seeking $50 millionfrom the law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman, where Douglas and King were partners when the alleged incidents took place.

The legal action comes a day after CBC Newsreported thatChapman had filed a formal complaint in July about King to the Law Society of Manitoba over the same alleged incidents. That same month, he also filed a complaint to the Canadian Judicial Council about Douglas's conduct.

The statements of claim all allege misfeasance in public office, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The claims against King and the law firm also note harassment.

Nostatements of defence have been filed and none of the allegations contained in the lawsuits have been proven in court.

Lawyer allegedly recommended porn site

In an interview with CBC News, Chapman said he first met King in 2002, when he retained him from the Thompson Dorfman Sweatman firm to handle his divorce.

Chapmanalleges King invited him out for a drink about five months later and mentioned a porn website devoted to interracial sex, particularly between black men and white women. He indicated he wanted Chapman, who is black, to have sex with his wife.

King also showed him about 30 sexually explicit photos of Douglas, showing her naked in various forms of bondage, in chains, with sex toys and performing oral sex, said Chapman, who noted in the lawsuit documents that he kept a diary of theirconversations and meetings.

When his divorce concluded, Chapman said he filed a complaint to the managing partners at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman. Soon after receiving the complaint, King left the firm.

Chapman received a $25,000 payment in return for a promise not to take legal action against King and his partners. As part of the settlement, Chapman said he was required to not speak about the matter and to destroy all emails, photos and other materials sent to him by King.

He said he signed the settlement papers, but kept the material.

After seven years of silence, Chapman said he decided to come forward, saying he felt distraught about the matter for a long time and worried it may have influence in a civil court case he's involved in, which is related to the divorce he obtained in 2003. CBC News has seen no evidence of such influence.

In thelawsuit documents, it says Chapman is seeing a psychologist who has diagnosed him"as having adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct, directly related to these episodes."

'Did she know?'

Irwin Cotler, the former federal justice minister who appointed Douglas to the Court of Queen's Bench in 2005, said on Wednesday that he had no idea about the photos.

Appointments to the bench are always thoroughly vetted and the candidate is asked about his or her background, he said in an interview in Ottawa.

It's possible that an applicant could be unaware of the possible misuse of their personal photos or papers, he said.

"The question is, what did she know and when did she know it? I think that will be a very important part of this," Cotler said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to comment on the allegations or the vetting processthat failed to discover theincident about the nude photos.

Speaking to reporters in Quebec on Wednesday,he saidit would be "completely inappropriate" for him to comment on the matter because it is before the Canadian Judicial Council.

"They are the body that deals with disciplinary and other such matters [involving judges]. The judiciary's responsible for looking into that matter," he said.

Douglas unaware of posting: lawyer

In an earlierinterview with CBC News, King's lawyer, Bill Gange, said King suffered fromdepression in 2003 and said the events Chapman complained about were part of an isolated incident and that King's wife didn't know he was soliciting a client to have sex with her.

Gange said Douglas also was unaware her husband was posting pictures online to a porn website soliciting black men for sex with white women.

Douglas has declined to comment, saying it's a private matter.

Gange said King took time off work on a sick leave after Chapman complained to his law firm, and was put under the care of a doctor. Gange said King's behaviour at the time is not in any way consistent with his behaviour before or since.

'At no time did I have an impression that Mr. Chapman felt uncomfortable having these discussions with me.' Jack King, in a letter to the Manitoba Law Society

King, in a letter to the Manitoba Law Society, acknowledged that he did meet and talk about sex with Chapman, but only after his client obtained his divorce in April 2003. He said Chapman would often initiate the conversations.

"At no time did I have an impression that Mr. Chapman felt uncomfortable having these discussions with me," King wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 12, 2010.

He acknowledged that he talked about the possibility of Chapman having an affair with Douglas, but denied that she had knowledge of it.

An Ottawa legal expert said that even if Douglas, who was appointed a judge in 2005, was the unwitting victim of a scheme, the presence of the photos on the internet raises issues about her ability to perform as a judge.

"If pictures of you naked end up on an internet site, it's quite difficult to say you have the credibility to be a judge," said Sbastien Grammond, dean of civil law at the University of Ottawa.

Grammond doubts that Douglas would have been appointed a judge if she had disclosed the fact that there were nude photographs of her on the internet in her application.