The husband of the Manitoba judge who is the subject of a judicial inquiry says posting nude photos of her online was a “bizarre sexual fantasy,” that he called “stupid” and “selfish.”
Jack King was testifying for the second day at the Canadian Judicial Council inquiry into the actions of his wife, Lori Douglas, an associate chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench.
In his testimony on Monday, King acknowledged taking more than 100 nude photos of Douglas before she became a judge and then posting some of them online without her knowledge.
King testified Tuesday that he came across the website Dark Cavern while he was reading erotic stories online. He first posted an ad on the site for a black man to accompany them on a trip to Mexico in 2002.
King then posted a second ad, looking for a “black lover” to have sex with Douglas. The ad suggests Douglas was a willing participant. However, King said Tuesday his wife was unaware of his actions.
King said Tuesday he doesn’t have an answer for why he posted about 30 photos of Douglas in two online galleries. He called his actions “stupid,” “grotesque,” and “selfish.”
Posting nude photos was “an absolutely bizarre sexual fantasy of mine,” he testified.
“I had a fantasy about a threesome of an interracial nature,” King said.
King also said Tuesday that he began taking photos of his wife 15 years ago, and stored them in at least three different locations both inside and outside their home. King said that Douglas never looked at them or asked what he intended to do with them. It wasn’t until 2003 that Douglas learned that the photos had been posted online, King said.
But Guy Pratte, the lawyer leading the inquiry, pressed King about his use of the term “we” in the online ads.
"Anyone reading either one of those ads ... would have the understanding that your wife was consenting," Pratte said.
"No. She did not," King replied.
King said Tuesday he wished he had concealed Douglas’s identity when posting the photos online.
“It’s my shame and stupidity that I didn’t,” he said.
The judicial inquiry was called after a man named Alexander Chapman filed lawsuits against Douglas and others in 2010 and filed a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council.
While the lawsuits were all dropped or dismissed, Chapman is accusing Douglas and King of harassing him in 2003. At the time, King was representing Chapman in his divorce.
Chapman says King directed him to nude photos of his wife that he had posted online, and asked Chapman to have sex with her. Both King and Douglas say Douglas knew nothing about the plan.
At the time, King and Douglas were lawyers at the same firm. Douglas was appointed to the bench in 2005.
Chapman sued King for harassment in 2003, a case that was settled for $25,000. The lawyer who represented Chapman in that case, Ian Histed, testified at the inquiry on Monday that the settlement included a confidentiality clause, and both parties agreed that the harassment issue had been resolved.
Histed told the inquiry that Chapman became disillusioned with the Manitoba justice system after reaching an unsatisfactory settlement with Winnipeg police after he slapped the force with a malicious prosecution lawsuit.
Histed said Chapman was prompted to file the 2010 suit against Douglas that was subsequently dropped because he felt that the judge who heard his case against the police was friends with her.
Among other points, the inquiry is investigating whether Douglas disclosed the situation regarding her husband, Chapman and the photos to the committee that vetted her ahead of her judicial appointment. The inquiry can recommend that Douglas be removed from the bench.
University of Manitoba law professor Karen Busby said that there have been only eight other cases of professional misconduct involving Canadian judges in the past 40 years, despite an average of 150 complaints being lodged each year.
“This is the only case that inquires about a judge’s personal life,” Busby told CTV Winnipeg. “And to the best of my knowledge it’s the only one that involves conduct prior to be coming a judge.”
With files from CTV Winnipeg’s Caroline Barghout and The Canadian Press
