Accused of bigamy, lawyer steps aside
“This case will not be argued in the press.”
OK, well, you got that part wrong — you being the lawyer for the lawyer: Stephen Bernstein acting for accused bigamist James Morton.
It was Bernstein who, on Friday morning, appeared before a Law Society of Ontario tribunal and said very little, other than informing the three-member panel that Morton would accept without legal wrangle, via a disciplinary hearing, an interlocutory (provisional) suspension of his licence to practise, as of Aug. 21.
Morton’s professional status, for evermore, will be decided later, likely pending the outcome of criminal charges brought against him: bigamy, obstruction of justice and forgery-related offences.
But, except for the conclusion of a case involving a youth offender at which he is scheduled to appear on Monday — not enough time to retain a replacement lawyer — Morton will otherwise only be seeing the inside of a courtroom as the defendant for the time being.
And, frankly, given the extraordinary allegations, Morton’s matter is doubtlessly being argued — discussed, debated, chewed over, gossiped about — in legal circles, wherever two or more of the berobed breed muster.
Morton is not just any two-bit ambulance chaser. He’s a prominent Hamilton lawyer, one-time president of the Ontario Bar Association, former counsel to the Association of Justices of the Peace of Ontario, previously held leadership positions within both the provincial and federal Liberal parties and, in the 2011 federal election, unsuccessfully ran as the Liberal candidate in Oshawa.
Also, for more than two decades, married to Rhonda Shousterman, herself a justice of the peace who presides in Newmarket. Still married to Shousterman. Although, if I were Shousterman, I would obtain a D-I-V-O-R-C-E pronto. Which is what Morton allegedly failed to do before taking a second wife at a marriage ceremony performed in Niagara on May 12. The bride was his law clerk, Jennifer Packwood.
The same law clerk who allegedly sent off one of Morton’s articling students to file false divorce documents at the Newmarket courthouse — Shousterman’s courthouse — a few weeks previously.
Courthouses are like villages. Everybody knows everybody, or at least they’re somewhat familiar with the names of judges and lawyers. A sharp cookie courthouse clerk, “concerned about irregularities,” according to an affidavit sworn by law society investigator Brian Borg, called the cops after the student left.
It was this clerk who allegedly discovered that the file number on the divorce order was “ficti- tious” and, further, that after checking the dockets of two judges named on the order, learned that neither had presided over any case involving Morton and Shousterman.
Shousterman was never served with divorce papers, according to Borg’s original affidavit.
A big fat tissue of fiction, allegedly.
Yet despite all the questionable paperwork, it appears a fake divorce certificate was produced, dated May 1.
At the Friday short-circuited procedure, a supplemental affidavit from the aforementioned Borg was filed, shedding further light on the sequence of events since Morton’s arrest on June 26.
Borg related that he received a phone call on Aug. 15 from Det.-Const. Rosa Sposato of the York Regional Police, Financial Crimes Unit, who requested a clarification to the motion record before the law society. To wit: police had submitted the certificate of divorce for expert analysis at the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
Handwriting comparison indicated that the name of the clerk which appears on the document did not match the clerk’s actual handwriting or signature.
Further, tests conducted at the centre concluded that the seal of the Superior Court of Justice placed on the certificate was added to the document using a colour laser printer.
That would be quite amateurish, slapdash forgery.
“The embossing stamp within the court seal has the stamp of James Morton partially on it,” states the affidavit.
The law society has since received “a number of inquiries from Mr. Morton’s clients,” the affidavit continues. No kidding. Borg said he’s received copies of six statements of claim naming Morton as the defendant, five arising from Superior Court and one from small claims court.
One of the plaintiffs, a former Morton client, has commenced four of those claims.
The other two plaintiffs are also clients.
Morton, who had practised in Nunavut for a long time before relocating to Hamilton, is also the subject of a “contentious civil suit” up there, according to the affidavit.
On Friday, counsel for the law society advised the tribunal that Morton plans to “retire” from Nunavut.
Morton, of course, is merely accused of all this chicanery at the moment.
When Borg interviewed Morton in mid-July — during which Morton declined to answer any questions related to the criminal charges — the investigator “canvassed” the possibility that mental health issues might explain “this apparently out-of-character behaviour.” Morton acknowledged he’d been prescribed antidepressants but claimed his “mental frame of mind” had not impaired his ability to practise law, according to the affidavit. “Listen, there’s nothing tremendously wrong with me,” Morton told Borg. “I have a strong and supportive spouse, I’ll call her that … Jennifer.”
Actually he allegedly had two of those, spouses, if only one in the eyes of the law. One wife and one ringer.
Let us consider what would drive a person, any person, to construct an alleged fraud of these dimensions.
Love: the heart wants what it wants when it wants it. But whose heart was throbbing and impatient? Ultimatum: A woman demanding that her lover put a ring on it tout sweetie or a man so ardent and impetuous that he would sidestep the fussy complication of a legal uncoupling, hauling his fiancée in front of an officiant under false pretences?
Miserliness: Divorce is hardly difficult to come by in Canada. It can cost a pretty penny though, in alimony and child support and lawyer fees.
Balls of brass: See all of the above.
Next court appearance on the criminal charges is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Newmarket.
You are kindly invited to the un-wedding of Mr. & Mrs. & Mrs. Morton.