'JAMES IMPOVERISHED ME': JP wife of bigamist lawyer hubby
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NEWMARKET — The wife of a prominent Ontario lawyer who committed bigamy says her “world and life” shattered when police broke the news to her of his crimes.
“My world and my life as I knew it, ended that afternoon,” said heart-broken Rhonda Shousterman, reading her victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing of husband James Cooper Morton.
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“James was leading a double life (with law clerk Jennifer Packwood).
“Cheating is bad enough, but this went way beyond cheating. In addition to the emotional betrayal, James impoverished me,” said Shousterman at the same courthouse where she works as a justice of the peace.
“James not only lied and cheated but he dissipated our assets to make a life with someone else,” she added.
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“Little did I know the reason James was not making money was because he had purchased a home in Hamilton for him and Jennifer.”
While Shousterman scrimped, Morton bought Packwood designer handbags and vacations, court heard.
“It’s hard for me to reconcile the broken man before this court with the man who, with his legal assistant, (engaged) in a course of action that was criminal, amoral and unethical,” said Shousterman.
She fell in love with Morton whom she praised as “kind, generous and loving” when both attended Osgoode Hall Law School.
“This is the James I miss and will grieve for every day until my dying day,” said Shousterman.
They married in August 1990 in Montreal.
In April, Morton, now, 59, pleaded guilty to bigamy and forgery charges for his divorce documents.
Morton began an intimate relationship with Packwood a few years ago, said Crown attorney Rob Scott.
He asked for a six-month conditional sentence.
Morton’s lawyer Stephen Bernstein asked for a conditional discharge.
In 2016, Morton moved in with Packwood in a leased house in Hamilton and proposed marriage to her in March 2017.
Morton and Packwood bought a house together in Hamilton in July 2017, setting up his law office downstairs while living upstairs.
The couple planned on getting married on Oct. 22, 2017 and Packwood “believed Morton was in the process of getting a divorce” from Shousterman, court heard.
The first date was cancelled and a second date set for May 12, 2018 when Morton illegally married Packwood in a St. Catharines ceremony.
Morton apologized in court, admitting, “My conduct was completely irrational.”
He was suspended from practising law since August 2018.
Justice Howard Borenstein will pass sentence on Sept. 11.
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