The first witness in the criminal trial of suspended Ottawa defence lawyer James Bowie has testified that he “descended into madness” and became “obsessed” with an ex-client who accused him of extortion in late 2022, to the point of asking for a gun to “take care” of her.
At that time, court heard Bowie was being investigated by the Law Society of Ontario, and that he was the subject of media coverage about his ex-client Leanne Aubin’s allegations that he offered her his legal services in exchange for oral sex.
Bowie, 41, has pleaded not guilty to harassing the Crown’s first witness in the case and trying to get her to obtain a firearm for him, as well as extorting Aubin and threatening to kill her.
The first witness cannot be identified due to a publication ban. A ban on identifying Aubin was previously lifted at her’s request.
The trial before out-of-town Ontario Court Justice Paul Cooper began in September but sat for only one day. It had to be adjourned to Tuesday because of issues unrelated to the case.
‘He thought he had dirt on me’
Bowie and the first witness were friends who met online in 2020 and starting hanging out more than usual in December 2022. Bowie was embroiled in controversy, and the witness was having immigration issues she wanted advice about, she testified.
In late February 2023 they met at a bar, where Bowie repeatedly suggested that they help each other with their problems and “wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she testified under examination in chief by assistant Crown attorney Kerry Watson in September.
Bowie offered her money and work under the table. She declined because she didn’t want to be indebted to him or put herself in jeopardy, she testified.
He also told her he “knows people I can do sex work for.” He said he knew she was vulnerable, and that he would tell her boyfriend she did sex work in the past — something she’d previously confided to Bowie, the witness testified.
“I was the only person left by him, and he thought he had dirt on me with the sex work, that I would comply with what he was asking,” she told court.
‘She’s out to get me’
Bowie told the witness he wanted a gun for “someone or himself to take care of [Aubin],” she said.
“I need this to be over with. I’m going to lose my life … my licence .. everything. She wants me buried. She’s out to get me. She wants me dead. I need her gone,” the witness testified Bowie told her about Aubin.
The witness was shocked and told him she didn’t want any part of it. After the meeting, she felt scared.
“Up until this point I’ve never seen [Bowie] become unhinged. And seeing someone that I used to personally and professionally respect … become depraved and speaking about wanting to commit a crime, it was a mind f–k to me,” she testified.
She stopped responding to his calls and messages.
Found tracking and GPS devices on her car
On April 2, 2023, she said she saw Bowie outside a supermarket, ducked so he couldn’t see her, then drove to another supermarket using an unconventional route. When she finished shopping at the next location, she once again saw Bowie in the parking lot and he told her they had to talk.
They had a conversation in her car in which she “pinky promised” to stay in touch to appease him, she testified. When she got home she saw him again in a nearby church parking lot.
Suspecting he’d somehow been tracking her, she went to her car and found a tracking device inside a wheel well. She said she texted him and he admitted it was his.
Afterward he “constantly” bombarded her with texts and threats to which she didn’t respond, she testified.
Then, on April 17, 2023, she found another GPS device under her car. That same day a former boss told her someone had called asking for information about her using Bowie’s number. Also that day the witness asked her roommate to call an unknown number someone was harassing her with, and heard Bowie’s voice on the line.
That’s when she broke and “finally” called the police, she told court.
Didn’t help Bowie, didn’t have guns
Under cross-examination by Bowie’s defence lawyer, Eric Granger, on Tuesday, the witness rejected suggestions that she did cocaine with Bowie; talked about or followed through with plans to conduct surveillance on people who had made complaints about him, including Aubin; and kept a revolver and a semi-automatic firearm in a storage locker.
She testified she hadn’t been in rehab, and didn’t lend a friend of Bowie’s a book about interview and interrogation techniques because she doesn’t loan her books out.
She said Bowie raised the topic of taking his own life with a gun, but rejected Granger’s suggestion that Bowie only ever asked for a gun in relation to harming himself. “He’s spoken about a gun on more than one occasion,” she testified.
Granger also suggested that during the conversation in her car on April 2, Bowie said something like: “Hey look, this is getting crazy, I feel like a crazy person, I’m not sure what’s going on here. Do you want to stop?”
She told court Bowie never said that.
Cross-examination continued Wednesday. The witness denied defence suggestions that Bowie had given her one of the tracking devices, and that she had exaggerated Bowie’s harassment to police to get him away from her. She also testified she was convinced Bowie could harm her, and that her fear of him continues.
Under brief re-examination by the Crown, she testified she is adamantly against drugs and is obligated to maintain good moral character for work-related reasons.
The trial continues.
