Suspended Ottawa lawyer awaits verdict on harassment, uttering threats charges

Suspended Ottawa lawyer James Bowie’s criminal trial has wrapped up. As CTV’s Katie Griffin reports, he pleaded not guilty to harassment and uttering threats.

The fate of suspended Ottawa lawyer James Bowie is now the hands of a judge.

Bowie has pleaded not guilty to harassing a former friend after she stopped communicating with him, asking her to get him a gun and uttering threats to kill an ex-client who went public with misconduct allegations against him.

A charge of extortion relating to allegations he offered ex-client Leanne Aubin legal services in exchange for oral sex was withdrawn by the Crown this week. A ban on identifying Aubin was previously lifted at her request.

In her closing arguments, assistant Crown attorney Kerry Watson said Bowie’s version of events was “akin to a plot out of a John Grisham novel.”

“His evidence under oath was inconsistent, it was illogical and it was at times bizarre,” she stated.

Bowie’s lawyer Eric Granger argued that “none of Mr. Bowie’s actions in the relevant time frame to this case were criminal and none of the four offences alleged by the Crown have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Granger acknowledged that “Mr. Bowie engaged in certain behaviours that were unflattering….no question he may well have to answer to some of those behaviours on other forums."

A former friend of Bowie, and the first witness at the trial, was recalled last week to provide further testimony. She can’t be identified due a publication ban.

The woman stated that she would often meet Bowie at bars and that he became “obsessed” with Aubin.

CTV News Ottawa first reported the misconduct allegations against Bowie in 2022.

“Both in chief and in cross, Mr. Bowie described to this court the intensity of the anger that he felt due to the allegations made by Ms. Aubin. He testified he was despondent, he was suicidal,” Watson told the court.

“He agreed that these allegations were all-consuming, the media was relentless and that his world was crumbling.”

Court heard that Bowie “made repeated requests for a gun to help him with his problem, that being Ms. Aubin. He therefore made it clear… he was capable of inflicting violence or seeking out violence.”

Bowie admits to placing GPS, following woman

Bowie said this former friend had evidence that could help exonerate him.

The friend testified that Bowie “descended into madness” and Bowie admitted to twice placing a GPS tracker on her vehicle and used it to follow her after she stopped communicating with him.

Bowie wrote in one text message to her “you’re treating me like I’m the enemy. If you want to call it quits let me know, but this is the opposite of what you told me. I don’t know what to do and need to hear from you urgently.”

Bowie “told her he was indeed following her. That in and of itself would cause a reasonable person to panic and be fearful. And she did say, in fact, she did panic and tore apart her car to find a tracking device,” Watson said.

Granger reiterated Bowie’s evidence at trial that “it was never my intention, nor do I believe I caused fear.”

Several messages from Bowie to the woman that went unanswered were entered into evidence.

They included:

• “I’ll give you a thousand dollars to eat dinner with me.”
• “There is only one AirTag. I can account for all my tags. Yours is the first AirTag I’ve placed.”
• “Would you rather talk here or do I need to find you again?”
• “Ok I’m coming over. See you soon.”

Granger said that the woman’s testimony was exaggerated at times, adding there was never any indication from the woman that the phone calls and texts were “unwanted much less disturbing, threatening, harmful in any sort of a way.”

“Apart from claims in relation to the firearm or the threats there’s nothing that’s… threatening bodily harm or ill to become of […] contained in any of this,” he said.

Watson said in her closing arguments that Bowie threatened to tell the woman’s boyfriend she’d engaged in sex work in the past, that she was an accomplice, and she would be deported if she went to the police.

The Crown described Bowie’s behaviour as “harassing. It was continuously menacing behaviour, and she felt cornered.”

“There’s no independent evidence, apart from [the friend’s] words to suggest that Mr. Bowie isn’t telling the truth when he denies having engaged in any threatening language…during the relevant time period.”

During additional questioning earlier this week, Granger showed the woman email correspondence and attachments.

The emails included screenshots of people talking about how to make a complaint against Bowie and another showed a discussion in which one woman says Bowie tried to give her drugs or pay her for oral sex.

The woman confirmed the emails were sent between her email address and Bowie’s but denied she was the one who sent them.

The witness had gone to bars with Bowie and said she’d sometimes leave her phone unattended when she went to the bathroom or out for a smoke and didn’t have a passcode on her phone.

“Leaving in in the attendance of friends I don’t really think about leaving it for… X amount of time or thinking that it’s going to be at risk for anything,” she testified.

She rejected the suggestion from Granger that she’d forgotten she sent the emails because she had been drinking.

“So, you’re saying under oath you’d never let yourself get under the influence of alcohol in a bar?” Granger pressed.

“No, sir, I don’t drink to the point of drunkenness,” she replied.

“Is it possible you had your phone at a bar one night, took these photographs, sent these emails and you just forgot because of the alcohol?”

“No, sir.”

A date for the judge to deliver his verdict is expected to be set this week.