Panel approves settlement to end Manitoba naked judge case

WINNIPEG – An investigation into whether a Manitoba judge whose nude photos were posted online should be removed from the bench is over.

A panel investigating Associate Chief Justice Lori Douglas has approved a settlement between the judge and the Canadian Judicial Council.

Lawyers for Lori Douglas said the associate chief justice plans to retire voluntarily in May and, given that, the council agrees that proceeding with a hearing doesn’t make sense.

Under the agreement, Douglas will voluntarily retire in May and hearings into her conduct will be dropped.

Douglas, who has been on leave since 2010, has also asked that the intimate photos of her taken by her husband be returned to her so they can be destroyed.

The judicial council said pursuing the matter once Douglas has retired isn’t in the public interest.

A week of hearings was scheduled to begin Monday, but lawyer Sheila Block began by telling the panel her client has reached an agreement with the judicial council.

Four years of having her personal life scrutinized has taken its toll on Douglas, Block said.

“Even though she loved being a judge, considered it an honour and privilege to serve, she is at the point where this is the best choice for her, for her son and elderly father, for her late husband’s children and the rest of her family,” Block said.

“To withstand more weeks of hearing into entirely private matters and risk the viewing of her intimate images by colleagues and others, is more than she can bear.”

The disciplinary panel is examining whether the photos are “inherently contrary to the image and concept of integrity” of the judiciary and undermine public confidence in the justice system. The panel is also looking into whether Douglas disclosed the existence of the photos before she was appointed to the bench in 2005.

Douglas’s late husband, lawyer Jack King, posted the intimate photos of his wife online over a decade ago and showed them to a client, Alexander Chapman, to try to entice him to have sex with her. Chapman later alleged the behaviour was sexual harassment.

He was paid $25,000 to destroy the photos and drop the complaint. But he held on to copies and made them public in 2010.

Douglas and King always said Douglas had no part in King’s actions, which King later described as “bizarre, ridiculous, stupid, self-indulgent, grotesque.” King died of cancer last spring and Douglas has been on paid leave since 2010.

“She has been devastated by the death of her mother and her husband during this period,” Block said.

A previous panel that was investigating Douglas only heard a few days of testimony and got bogged down in technical arguments. Its members resigned en masse following allegations that the proceeding was biased against Douglas and three new panellists were appointed.

Douglas recently lost a bid to keep the new panel from viewing the nude photos, prompting her lawyer to apply to the Federal Court for an injunction, which was granted.

Independent counsel Suzanne Cote said it will likely take months for the case to make its way through the Federal Court and the judicial council doesn’t think carrying on with a hearing in light of Douglas’s voluntary retirement is in the public interest.