Posted on 07/26/2005 9:18:13 PM PDT by svxdave
Vancouver Sun lawyer Rob Anderson called a show on Broadway the "most important piece of evidence" in the libel trial of self-help guru Anthony Robbins versus The Vancouver Sun and others. Mr. Anderson, in his Tuesday afternoon closing arguments, argued there are clear and convincing facts that show Mr. Robbins attended the show with Bonnie Lynch in November, 1999.
The date of the show, Nov. 26, 1999, is important to Mr. Anderson because it places Bonnie on a "date" with Mr. Robbins before she separated with her ex-husband, John Lynch.
Mr. Robbins, who made millions selling self-help advice, is suing The Sun and others for a series of stories published in June, 2001, telling the marital troubles of Mr. Lynch, a Langley businessman. Mr. Robbins says The Sun portrayed him as an adulterous, wife-stealing hypocrite who should follow his own teachings when it reported on Mr. Lynch's separation from Bonnie.
Bill Humphrey's contradictions: late 1999
Mr. Anderson, before getting to the Broadway show, pointed out contradictions in earlier testimony by Bonnie's father, Bill Humphrey, who told the court his daughter and Mr. Lynch did not spend New Years 1999 together.
Mr. Anderson repeated some of Mr. Humphrey's testimony, in which he said, "My family, all my children, my grandkids," were present at the New Year's 1999 party. Mr. Lynch, he said, was not there.
"John Lynch was in Hawaii," Mr. Humphrey told the court in his testimony.
"We now know that was absolutely wrong," Mr. Anderson said. (After Mr. Humphrey testified, the court saw home video footage of the New Year's party in question, with both Bonnie and Mr. Lynch present.)
"He was less than candid," Mr. Anderson added.
Aside from the New Years issue, Mr. Anderson also pointed out that Mr. Humphrey incorrectly recalled several other events, including the date he moved Bonnie into a Langley condo after she separated from Mr. Lynch.
Mr. Humphrey initially testified the date was in January, 2000, but then testified the date was Feb. 21, 2000, when Mr. Anderson showed him the purchase contract.
"Mr. Humphrey's evidence is fraught with difficulty," Mr. Anderson said.
Portland trip "wasn't work": Oct. 5, 1999
Mr. Anderson, after giving some details of the Sept. 12 to Sept. 28, 1999, seminar where Mr. Robbins met Bonnie and told her she had a "beautiful soul," moved ahead to a Portland seminar.
Mr. Anderson said Bonnie, who attended the Hawaii seminar as a blood tester, was not working at Mr. Robbins's Portland seminar. Pointing to extensive phone records the defence team has, Mr. Anderson told the court somebody at Mr. Robbins's companies called the Lynch household the day ahead of the conference, Oct. 4, and Bonnie was on her way to Portland.
"Bonnie places five calls to Robbins-related numbers" after receiving the message, Mr. Anderson said.
Once in Portland, she apparently did some shopping, at Nordstrom's and at Abercrombie and Fitch, using Mr. Lynch's credit card, and then checked into her hotel.
"This wasn't work," Mr. Anderson said of the trip.
The Broadway show, the "most important piece of evidence"
Mr. Anderson, after some discussion about the meaning of a perfect marriage, turned his attention to the Broadway show, his "most important piece of evidence."
(The Broadway show, if it happened, would place Bonnie and Mr. Robbins together before the New Years events and possibly before a trip she and John Lynch allegedly made to Whistler.)
"[Mr. Robbins] recalls going to a Broadway show with Bonnie," Mr. Anderson said, but Mr. Robbins was not sure when. Mr. Robbins, in his pretrial interview, evidently told Mr. Anderson the show could have been in the spring of 2000.
Mr. Anderson, however, contends the evidence shows otherwise.
"On or about Nov. 23 John Lynch booked a flight for Bonnie to travel to New York," he told the court.
Mr. Robbins's movements, traced by credit card, placed him in New York at the time as well, Mr. Anderson said. Mr. Anderson added that credit card statements provided by Mr. Robbins for the trial, redacted by Mr. Robbins's employees to remove irrelevant entries, showed Mr. Robbins buying Broadway tickets.
As for Mr. Robbins's suggestion the show with Bonnie may have happened in 2000, Mr. Anderson said, "Bonnie's cellphone records disclose that she is not" in New York in the spring of 2000.
"Bonnie Lynch on Nov. 26 travelled at the invitation of Mr. Robbins to New York," Mr. Anderson said.
"This is ... perhaps the single most important piece of evidence," he told the court.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Dec. 3, 1999, to Dec. 6, 1999
After Broadway, Mr. Anderson said Bonnie attended one of Mr. Robbins's seminars in Florida, where she called Mr. Lynch a number of times at work. The contents of those calls have not been disclosed in the trial.
Toward the end of 1999, Mr. Anderson noted that Bonnie phoned Mr. Robbins's personal answering service 33 times.
Lynch divorce finally settled: June 27, 2005
Mr. Anderson also raised the issue of the timing of the final settlement in the Lynch divorce, which happened during the course of the current trial. (The Sun was reporting on the original divorce in June, 2001. Bonnie reopened the matter at a later date.)
He sets out some dates to make his point. On June 24, 2005, Mr. Lynch was dropped as a defendant in the current libel trial. On June 27, 2005, Bonnie discontinued her second divorce claim against Mr. Lynch.
"It was a global settlement ... on which some accord was reached," Mr. Anderson said.
Mr. Anderson did not address the point further.
Malice
Mr. Anderson, toward the end of the day, addressed, or rather did not address, the contention that The Sun was motivated by malice in writing one of its stories.
"I'm not going to be addressing the issue of malice," Mr. Anderson said.
He explained that Mr. Lee wrote a story about an adulterous affair, but the reference to adultery was taken out.
"How you get from that to malice is incomprehensible," he said.
The trial resumes Wednesday morning, with The Sun scheduled to complete its closing arguments.
No innocent parties here.
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