Following Leonard Cohen's testimony against former business manager Kelley Lynch, the songwriter's onetime associate was found guilty last week of harassment and violating a restraining order. Now, she has received a prison sentence and Cohen has delivered a formal statement.
On Tuesday (April 17), Lynch was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for her crimes, which include sending hundreds of threatening emails and voicemails. She also must undergo alcohol and anger management and mental evaluations. At the end of her time in prison, an evaluation will determine how she is to spend the rest of her five-year sentence.
At the sentencing, Cohen read a statement in court, conveying the singer's relief at the verdict and even contained a dash of black wit.
He said [via Reuters], "I want to thank the defendant Ms. Kelley Lynch for insisting on a jury trial, thus exposing to the light of day her massive depletion of my retirement savings and yearly earnings, and allowing the court to observe her profoundly unwholesome, obscene and relentless strategies to escape the consequences of her wrongdoing."
On a darker note, Cohen suggested that, once Lynch is released from prison, she's likely to resume her harassment.
He said, "It gives me no pleasure to see my onetime friend shackled to a chair in a court of law, her considerable gifts bent to the service of darkness, deceit and revenge. I fear that her obsessive commitment to these activities [will return] as soon as Ms. Lynch is released, therefore I will be grateful for whatever respite the court will allow my children, my grandchildren, my friends and associates, and myself."
Cohen advised Lynch to "take refuge in the wisdom of her religion." She worked for the songwriter for around 17 years before he fired her in 2004. The next year, he sued her for stealing money, and a judge ordered her to pay him $9.5 million. The pair briefly had an intimate relationship.
Cohen recently released the album Old Ideas.
On Tuesday (April 17), Lynch was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for her crimes, which include sending hundreds of threatening emails and voicemails. She also must undergo alcohol and anger management and mental evaluations. At the end of her time in prison, an evaluation will determine how she is to spend the rest of her five-year sentence.
At the sentencing, Cohen read a statement in court, conveying the singer's relief at the verdict and even contained a dash of black wit.
He said [via Reuters], "I want to thank the defendant Ms. Kelley Lynch for insisting on a jury trial, thus exposing to the light of day her massive depletion of my retirement savings and yearly earnings, and allowing the court to observe her profoundly unwholesome, obscene and relentless strategies to escape the consequences of her wrongdoing."
On a darker note, Cohen suggested that, once Lynch is released from prison, she's likely to resume her harassment.
He said, "It gives me no pleasure to see my onetime friend shackled to a chair in a court of law, her considerable gifts bent to the service of darkness, deceit and revenge. I fear that her obsessive commitment to these activities [will return] as soon as Ms. Lynch is released, therefore I will be grateful for whatever respite the court will allow my children, my grandchildren, my friends and associates, and myself."
Cohen advised Lynch to "take refuge in the wisdom of her religion." She worked for the songwriter for around 17 years before he fired her in 2004. The next year, he sued her for stealing money, and a judge ordered her to pay him $9.5 million. The pair briefly had an intimate relationship.
Cohen recently released the album Old Ideas.
