'Sex Object' Client Complains: My Lawyer Showed Me Nude Photos of His Wife, Now a Judge
Corrected: When Alexander Chapman retained a family lawyer in 2002, he was seeking a divorce.
But he got a lot more than he bargained for from his then-counsel at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman in Winnipeg, Canada, the computer specialist contends in ethics complaints against husband-and-wife attorneys Jack King and Lori Douglas, who is now a family court judge. (He has since sued the two and the firm, and King has filed counterclaims, as subsequent ABAJournal.com posts Wednesday and Friday detail.)
Chapman contends King showed him nude photos of Douglas, some of which were sexually explicit and involved bondage, and directed Chapman, who is black, to a website seeking an interracial encounter, CBC News reports in a lengthy article.
Plus, King allegedly pushed his client to have sex with Douglas in 2003, to the point of harassment. Distraught by the situation and upset by being perceived by his lawyer as “a sex object,” Chapman says, he felt pressured to go along with the conversations, lest he wind up without representation, although he never had an affair with Douglas.
In a letter to the Manitoba Law Society, King admits that he talked with Chapman about sex and discussed a possible affair between Chapman and Douglas. However, he says Douglas knew nothing of all this. King says the conversations took place only after Chapman was divorced in April 2003. And, according to King, the sex talks were often initiated by Chapman, the CBC article reports.
King also reportedly posted photos of Douglas on a website—he says without her knowledge.
Douglas, who sits on the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, declined to comment to CBC News.
In addition to the ethical issue presented by a lawyer allegedly pressuring a client for sex, the claimed nude photos of Douglas could cast a negative light on the bench, thus presenting another ethical issue, observers tell the CBC.
“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,” says Sébastien Grammond. He serves as the University of Ottawa’s dean of civil law.
Chapman says he intends to sue both King and Douglas for sexual harassment and discrimination.
Additional coverage:
Toronto Sun: “Winnipeg judge embroiled in sex scandal”
Winnipeg Free Press: “Manitoba judge, lawyer face probe over past personal lives”
Updated Sept. 1 to correct references confusing King and Chapman and clarify headline and link to ABAJournal.com post about subsequent lawsuit and on Sept. 3 to link to subsequent ABAJournal.com coverage.
