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The Voice of the Wildcats
The Jian Ghomeshi Trial: Defense Attorney Marie Henein
February16th 2016 - Abirami Sudharshan
The Lowdown
On Friday, the two week sexual assault trial of disgraced former CBC Radio host of “Q”, Jian Ghomeshi, came to a close, having undergone a fascinating course.
The trial began on February 1st, taking place in Toronto’s Old City Hall, under the Ontario Court of Justice.
As had been opted for by the defendant, Ghomeshi was tried before a single judge, the honourable William Horkins, with no jury, nor a preliminary inquiry.
Ghomeshi plead "not guilty" to five charges; “four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance and choking.”
Three female complainants were involved bringing the charges against Ghomeshi, Trailer Park Boys star, Lucy DeCoutere being the only complaintant waiving the court-ordered publication ban of their identities.
Their case was argued for by the lead Crown Prosecutor, Michael Callaghan, a lawyer who has been described to be “well-balanced” with “good judgement and trial skills,” by the president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association.
Ghomeshi’s defence on the other hand, featured the incredibly capable, blade sharp, Marie Henein of Henein Hutchinson LLP, as the lead defense attorney.
A Background on Marie Henein
Besides having garnered much attention in the media because of the high profile status of the defendant, the case has been closely followed by many in anticipation of a spectacular performance by the acclaimed criminal lawyer representing Ghomeshi - Marie Henein. The 50 year-old partner in the firm Henein Hutchinson LLP, born in Cairo and raised in Toronto, studied law at the Osgoode Hall Law School and at Columbia University. After having received her Masters in Law from Columbia in 1991, she went on to become an extremely accomplished lawyer, arguing cases in the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada on the regular. She is privy to an elite group of lawyers named on the 2010 list of Best Lawyers in Canada and was the recipient of the 2013 Laura Legge Award. Not to mention, she is seen as one of the country’s leading experts on criminal law, lecturing often at Universities and holding positions on the editing panels of a plethora of criminal law publications including Martin’s Criminal Code and Canadian Criminal Cases, among others.
Henein is already well known for her representation of former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant who faced charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving in relation to the death of cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard in 2009 and of former Junior Hockey coach David Frost who faced sexual exploitation charges in 2008. In both cases, the charges were acquitted.
In the case of Jian Ghomeshi, she delivered fierce cross-examinations of the Crown’s witnesses. It was described to be “razor sharp, dramatic, and downright terrifying.” Her handling of the case definitely had a significant effect on the course of the trial’s proceedings.
The Proceedings (From the Side of the Defence)
The case began when the witnesses began to make their appearances; the three complainants were called to testify by the Crown. The first woman alleged that Ghomeshi had pulled her hair and punched her head on two separate occasions in 2002 and 2003. The second, Lucy DeCoutere testified that Ghomeshi had choked her and slapped her while the two were kissing at Ghomeshi’s residence in Toronto in 2003. And finally, the third made a claim that Ghomeshi had applied pressure to her neck and clamped a hand over her mouth, smothering her, in a Toronto Park in 2003.
What ensued was the meticulously sharp cross examination of the witnesses by Marie Henein on the side of Ghomeshi’s defence. The defence had found many discrepancies and omissions in the statements that the testifiers had made to the police, the court and the Crown and worked away attempting to significantly damage their credibility. Henein made the argument that the witnesses’ credibility regarding core issues in their case should be dismissed as they had underperformed in providing reliable information concerning the other details of the case.
The first woman had testified under oath that she had had no contact with Ghomeshi after the incident. However, the defence presented two emails and a suggestive picture of herself that she had sent to him more than a year after, which the witness eventually acknowledged, calling the reliability of her previous testimony into question. The second witness, Lucy DeCoutere had said that after her unpleasant encounter with Ghomeshi, she had harboured no romantic interests in him, however it was later shown in court that she had sent him an email and letters that stated otherwise. They expressed her willingness to meet up again in order to engage in sexual activities. The third woman, finally, had told police that she would only feel safe around Ghomeshi when she was in public after the alleged assault. However, evidence arose that indicated that she had engaged with him in consensual sexual activity just days after. Ghomeshi did not testify, a wise decision made by the defence as it was not legally required that they did so and it prevented the Crown prosecutors from having a chance to improve their case. In this way, the defence presented and extremely strong case under Henein with evidence that effectively supported it.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jian-ghomeshi-sexual-assault-trial-1.3443562
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ghomeshi-trial-crown-police-1.3444776
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/jian-ghomeshi-trial-closing-arguments
