DECLARATION OF KELLEY LYNCH
I, KELLEY LYNCH, declare:
1. I am a citizen of the United States who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. I am over the age of 18 years. I have personal knowledge of the facts contained in this declaration and if called upon to testify I could and would testify competently as to the truth of the facts stated herein.
2. I worked as singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s personal manager, and in other capacities, from approximately April 1988 through October 21, 2004. During this period of time, I was continuously subjected to sexual harassment, sexual assault, threats with respect to my job, and other wholly unprofessional and, at times, shocking conduct. This declaration will detail what Los Angeles Superior Court, LAPD, the City Attorney of Los Angeles, and others, view as a statutory required brief, intimate “dating relationship” in the State of California.
3. From approximately 1984 through April 1988, I worked as legendary music industry attorney Marty Machat’s legal assistant. Leonard Cohen, Phil Spector, Peter Gabriel, and many other illustrious artists were clients of Machat & Machat’s. I first met Leonard Cohen at some point in 1985. I distinctly recall that he was in a very troubled period psychologically and it involved his relationship with photographer, Dominique Issermann. While I had spoken to Cohen continuously on the phone, I had never actually met him. He detailed his psychological state, relationship with Dominique Issermann, and actually informed me that he felt homicidal and was forced to lock himself in his house in Montreal. As I did not know Leonard Cohen, I found this situation rather alarming and alerted Mr. Machat who expressed concerned. It was my understanding that Cohen had, at another point, also suffered some form of meltdown, was walking around New York high on meth and carrying a loaded pistol, which Marty Machat was forced to confiscate from him.
4. One day, Cohen came into our offices and we briefly discussed a book of poetry on my desk, “First Thought, Best Thought” by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist lama. Cohen borrowed the book and returned it to me several days later. In the interim, Marty Machat sent me over to the Royalton Hotel where Leonard Cohen was staying for approximately one week. I believe Cohen was in town on a matter related to his recording of “Take This Waltz” which was included in a 1986 tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca entitled “Poetas en Nueva York” or “Poets in New York.” Marty Machat asked me to deliver papers to Cohen at the hotel. I walked over, was invited upstairs, and knocked on the door. Leonard Cohen opened the door, pulled me inside, threw me violently up against the wall, shoved his tongue down my throat and hand down my pants. I found the situation shocking and asked “What’s the matter, Leonard? Don’t you know how to be friendly with women?” This question appeared to startle Cohen who quickly apologized and took the documents from me. I returned to Marty Machat’s office and discussed the incident with Mr. Machat and other individuals in our offices.
4. Leonard Cohen spent approximately one week in New York City at this time. While disturbed by the incident, Marty Machat asked me to attend to Cohen’s needs while in town. Mr. Machat was traveling to England at that time. Cohen spent the next seven days glued to the chair next to my desk. We went out for lunch, he apologized profusely, and I generally found him to be pleasant and intelligent. The incident was not mentioned again and soon forgotten.
5. I did not really have all that much in person interaction with Leonard Cohen until April 1988 when he hired me as his personal manager. From approximately 1984 through April 1988, I met Leonard Cohen possibly a handful of times. We continued to speak on the phone and became rather friendly and he was the client I was closest with in many ways. I do recall Cohen being in New York at another period when he asked me to phone Allen Ginsberg, a friend of mine, to arrange a meeting. I did and Cohen traveled to the village to meet Allen Ginsberg at his flat. He found a note on the door informing him that Gregory Corso was in town and he was unable to meet with Cohen. This infuriated Leonard Cohen. Another time, I visited Cohen at the Mayflower and he informed me that he had run into Joe Cocker. Cocker was evidently drunk and amiable. Cohen invited him up to his room and recounted an incident where Cocker was rifling through Cohen’s coat pockets, believing it was his own coat, looking for a package of cigarettes. For some reason, this incident amused Cohen. I believe this would have been sometime in 1987 as Jennifer Warnes was by then a client of the Machat firm and I distinctly recall the firm’s involvement in the use of the Warnes/Cocker duet in the film Dirty Dancing. Phil Spector’s song, “Be My Baby,” was also used in the film and soundtrack. Also, during this visit, I recall that Leonard Cohen spent time with a friend of mine who happened to be in town visiting with me. At no time were we in a brief, intimate statutory “dating” relationship.
6. Apart from these two encounters, I really do not recall meeting Cohen in person during this period of time (1994 until March 1988) until sometime in or around March 1988 when Cohen flew into town. The reason for this visit was the fact that Marty Machat was dying of cancer. In January 1988, I attended Buddhist event in Colorado and when I returned I learned that Marty Machat was diagnosed with lung cancer. Cohen flew into pick up certain papers and documents. He also had some personal financial matters to resolve with Marty Machat. Our encounters during this period were limited to meetings in Machat & Machat’s offices and, on one occasion, I shared a cab with Cohen uptown. I may have joined him for dinner. It was a very disturbing moment in time that involved my being asked to witness Marty Machat’s Last Will & Testament and visit with him while he was dying. On this day, Cohen was visiting Mr. Machat’s companion, Avril Giacobbi, and I lived on the upper west side so we shared a cab uptown together. We parted ways outside of Mr. Machat’s upper east side apartment building. These encounters evidently led the City Attorney of Los Angeles to inform jurors that Cohen and I were in a brief, intimate relationship in the mid-80s. LAPD’s Threat Management Unit evidently felt this was a “sexual relationship.” I have no idea what a “sexual relationship” is and take great offense at LAPD’s position that I was in a “sexual relationship” with Cohen. I have no idea what a “sexual relationship” is, was not in one with Cohen, we were not in a “dating” relationship, sexual harassment and assault are not “dating,” and I was Leonard Cohen’s personal manager. I feel I have been victimized by misogynists over this and other situations related to Leonard Cohen. He personally seems to believe that transforming me into his ex-lover makes the fall out between us far more salacious and scandalous.
7. I will now detail – generally – the conduct of Leonard Cohen with respect to me, a female personal manager and colleague – for approximately seventeen years. The City Attorney of Los Angeles evidently believes this conduct, including indecent exposure and jealous rage over my friendship with Oliver Stone and other men, is a statutory required brief, intimate, “dating” relationship meant to “annoy” Leonard Cohen. LA Superior Court has, in one of its finer moments with respect to me, actually assigned me a secret “dating” relationship with a man who sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, and exposed his penis to me for years. This is unconscionable governmental conduct in all its brazen glory.
8. On March 19, 1988, Marty Machat passed away. At that time, Leonard Cohen hired me as his personal manager. As his “I’m Your Man” world tour would begin on April 5, 1988, and there were many details to work out, I was extraordinarily busy. I was also responsible for negotiating new publishing agreements, sorting through agreements and clarifying contracts for Cohen, while he and his personal family friend and lawyer, Herschel Weinberg, sorted through issues related to Cohen’s off-shore accounts, confusion with respect to certain contracts being inadvertently assigned to corporate entities, Cohen’s green card, and so forth. In the early 90s, I worked for Jules Zalon. I therefore personally introduced Cohen to this firm and while on tour, but in New York City, Leonard Cohen personally met with Mr. Zalon’s partner, Peter Shukat who he in turn hired.
9. On April 5, 1988, the “I’m Your Man Tour” kicked off in Germany. The tour would continue through November 1988 with two different stops in New York City. I distinctly recall, during the first stop (July 1988), Cohen meeting personally with Peter Shukat and engaging him at that time. As Cohen was only in town for two days, with his entire band, we did not spend a considerable amount of time together. The next time Cohen was in New York City was November 16, 1988 for his appearance at the Beacon Theatre. I recall his being extremely busy, attended the band’s rehearsal and concert, and accompanied Cohen when he met with Herschel Weinberg. At this time, I was dating my ex-husband, Douglas Penick, and was most certainly not interested in any type of romantic or intimate relationship with Cohen. Cohen, for his part, was still involved to some degree with Dominique Issermann. I did visit Los Angeles for the tail end of band rehearsals for the “I’m Your Man” tour and, at that time, visited with Phil Spector who also resided in Los Angeles. While I stayed with Cohen during this trip, we were not involved in a statutory required brief intimate dating relationship or any other type of “intimate” relationship. In fact, I recall Roscoe Beck visiting Cohen’s home the night I visited Phil Spector. He was there when the car picked me up. This did infuriate Cohen but, at that point, his jealous rages had not begun.
10. At some point in December 1989 or January 1990, my husband, son, and I relocated to Los Angeles. Leonard Cohen specifically requested that I relocate which I did. This move resulted in Douglas Penick and I quickly parting ways as he despised Los Angeles and our relationship fell apart. Beginning at this period of time, Leonard Cohen and I began to spend a tremendous amount of time together, traveled together, and were seemingly close friends. That would turn out to be an entirely fraudulent relationship. Cohen’s misconduct towards me began almost immediately after I relocated to Los Angeles. My offices were temporarily located in the flat below his. Cohen was dating Rebecca DeMornay and I became an issue in their relationship. Cohen explained that he informed DeMornay that I was his “soul mate” and this caused her extreme consternation. Working in this type of environment became extremely uncomfortable, disturbing, and unprofessional. Cohen’s daughter would actually move into these offices. According to Cohen, due to the relationship issues with DeMornay, it was time for me to find a permanent business office which I did. And, at that time, we renegotiated the terms of my compensation. As Cohen lived upstairs from my office, from approximately 1990 through late 1994 or early 1995, I would frequently meet with him over coffee in the mornings, join him for lunch, and we were together throughout the day.
11. In 1990, Douglas Penick and I broke up, he left Los Angeles for Colorado, and I became involved with record producer, Steve Lindsey. Cohen introduced me to Lindsey who was initially hired to produce the track “Be For Real” for Cohen’s “The Future” album which was released in 1993. By 1992, I was pregnant with Lindsey and my younger son, Ray Charles Lindsey. At the time of Ray’s birth, Cohen and DeMornay were on Hydra, Greece and Cohen and I had never been involved with one another in any way, shape or form. In fact, at times, he informed people that this was a corporate resolution – that he and I would never undermine our relationship by blurring the lines between professional business conduct, a familial friendship, and/or anything that would faintly resemble an “intimate” relationship per California’s statute. Ray Charles Lindsey was born on December 18, 1992 and Leonard Cohen is his godfather which is utterly and thoroughly appalling, particularly based on his role in the coordinated custody matter that destroyed my sons’ lives. This was based upon fraudulent and perjured legal documents and one of LA Superior Court’s infamous default judgments. That particular matter is over, my son has reached the age of 18, and my sons can no longer be used as weapons against me – although the City Attorney targeted me over the coordinated default judgment custody matter and my older son John Rutger Penick’s horrifying Whole Foods accident where he had his fingers ripped off by a meat grinder he was not trained or qualified to use. He was, however, trained to use a cash register. The City Attorney has argued that these issues “annoy” Leonard Cohen. That would include, but is not limited, to his exposing his penis to me routinely and the fact that he falsely accused me of having sex with Oliver Stone – to my younger son’s father – in order to coordinate a custody matter that would crush me. This is the true nature of the folksinger. The City Attorney also informed the Court that I created stories about Cohen allegedly molesting his daughter. I most certainly did not. This particular issue was created online by one Stephen Gianelli … who attempted to obfuscate it with my position that any adult stranger, such as Gianelli, who attempted to lure my then minor son into privately communicating with him online should be viewed as a sexual predator. The City Attorney also willfully used the latter incident against me when, in fact, my email related to strangers – not Cohen – targeting my sons including Ray Charles Lindsey who was a minor at that time. I will note for this Court that I repeatedly contacted LAPD, City Attorney, and District Attorney about this matter. Instead of taking action, they targeted me over it. Please see Ann Diamond’s declaration, attached hereto, as it details the molestation allegation that Leonard Cohen’s daughter made publicly about her father. Ann Diamond is a former friend of Cohen’s who actually was his “lover” in the late 70s, around the time that Cohen’s album, produced by Phil Spector, was released. I personally found Lorca Cohen’s allegations – that her father molested her -to be extremely disturbing at the time and I am the individual who had my brother-in-law, an attorney in Canada, ask Ann Diamond to remove the statements from her blog because they upset Lorca Cohen. Nevertheless, as I have been falsely accused of making these statements, I feel it is appropriate to address the facts and the truth. Exhibit A: Declaration of Ann Diamond.
12. At some point in late 1994, Cohen was releasing his book “Stranger Music” in Canada and the United States. I accompanied Cohen on his book tour. During this time, he informed me that he was breaking up with Rebecca DeMornay for me. I was horrified and his conduct, including insisting that I have sex with him and threatening my job when I refused, was becoming increasingly problematic. For example, at some point in 1996, I became the personal manager for Adam Cohen, Leonard Cohen’s son. I accompanied him on a press junket in Canada. While there, I also met with Corky Laing, drummer for the band “Mountain” who was working with Alliance, a company interested in pursuing intellectual property asset deals. I met with Corky Laing, the night we planned to fly home to Los Angeles, and this – together with traffic – caused Adam Cohen and I to miss our flight. When I returned home, Cohen was in a jealous rage over Corky Laing. This happened repeatedly including with both Oliver Stone, a friend of mine, and Paul Burger, head of Sony Canada and Sony Europe. At some point after the release of a tribute album that I put together for Cohen, and served as executive producer for, Cohen and I traveled to Toronto for the Canadian album release. Cohen became furious that our friend, Nancy Southam, located him in Canada, traveled to the Four Seasons in Toronto, and this evidently interfered with his so-called romantic plans for the two of us. We traveled home separately, as I had business in New York, and by the time I arrived home, Cohen was again in a rage, furious that I refused to have sex with him in Toronto, and fired numerous people. He, of course, also threatened my job. Things would normally calm down after a period of time but tended to remain tense for months. I repeatedly received horrendous letters and faxes from Cohen that related to these incidents.
13. In or around 1994, I met Oliver Stone through mutual friends. We were quite close with Tibetan Buddhist teacher, His Holiness Kusum Lingpa, and ultimately assisted His Holiness with his Los Angeles center. My friendship with Oliver Stone disturbed Leonard Cohen. He was undergoing a difficult period in time, was drinking far too much, and informed me that he was consuming a tremendous amount of “prescription meth.” His personal behavior was at times entirely intolerable and I became alarmed by it. I recall one evening at dinner with Cohen and Oliver Stone where Cohen ended up on the floor prostrating to me and telling Oliver Stone that I was his “teacher” and generally embarrassing himself and me. I asked Cohen to switch seats with me so that he was next to Oliver Stone and I was seated next to my friend, Richard Rutowski.
14. From approximately January 1995 through December 1998, Leonard Cohen spent time on Mt. Baldy at Sasaki Roshi’s Zen Center. As a patron, Cohen was provided a guest cabin but was frequently in Los Angeles and Roshi often taught at Rinzai Ji, his center in Los Angeles. At a certain point, I served on Roshi’s Board of Directors and also became quite close with him. At no time during this period was Leonard Cohen in a rigorous Buddhist retreat. He was working on material for his forthcoming studio album, for which he received an advance and was contractually obligated to deliver, and used the retreat as a backdrop for interviews and a documentary called “Spring of 1996.” This period of time was exceptionally difficult with respect to the sexual harassment.
15. During the Mt. Baldy phase, Leonard Cohen began dictating a book that he planned to call “The Autobiography of Leonard Cohen by Kelley Lynch.” He wanted to copy the format used for “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.” I was sitting at Cohen’s kitchen table and, because I take excellent shorthand notes, he simply began dictating a portion of this planned book. I was absolutely shocked when he began dictating about his sexual dalliances with Rebecca DeMornay. He went into excruciating details about what it was like when she would climax sexually. He also routinely provided me with other excruciating details about his sexual adventures with other women. Leonard Cohen would hire hookers and evidently liked one young Korean girl, Number 11, in particular. He would provide me with details, such as his disdain for her alcohol based perfume, his insistence upon her showering first, and tell me in great detail about their sexual encounters. It was intolerable. One night when Ray was quite young, Cohen phoned my home continuously at about 10 PM. He had rented a room in Los Angeles and demanded that I come over. I hung up the phone, refused to answer the continuous ringing, and he was furious the next day. This was the type of ongoing conduct I was exposed to. He would attempt to manipulate the situation by gossiping and pretending something else was going on. For instance, he might inform third parties that Steve Lindsey was jealous of Cohen and my relationship.
16. Leonard Cohen’s kitchen was connected to his bedroom by a small room that served as his laundry room. I would frequently sit at his kitchen table, next to the window, and Cohen constantly walked in, wearing boxer shorts, with his penis exposed. At times, he would massage his penis while standing in front of me. In one memorable encounter, Cohen asked if he could give me an enema. At other times, Cohen would ask me to come over, leave the door open, and I would wait for him in the kitchen. He frequently called me into the bathroom, where he would soak in the tub, and demanded that I read legal and business documents while he bathed. At these times, he also exposed his penis to me. It got to the point where I could no longer stand being alone with him but, as I was his personal manager, supporting my children and parents, I had no choice. In 1999, I did begin a greeting card company with the hopes of resigning as his personal manager.
17. I was also forced to visit Cohen alone in his cabin on Mt. Baldy. I distinctly recall my last visit to Mt. Baldy. Cohen had a two room cabin. In one room was a bed, night table, and possibly some other small furniture. In the other room, Cohen had a desk, recording unit, fax, computer, and so forth. The bathroom was off the bedroom directly opposite the bed. On this occasion, I was standing in the bedroom as the door to the cabin was in that room. Cohen exited the bathroom absolutely naked, threw me onto the bed, pinned me down, and demanded that I have sex with him. He was extremely aggressive and appeared capable of violence.
18. On another occasion, Steve Lindsey found a letter Cohen had written me. He became extremely upset and told me that he felt Cohen was in love with me. I recounted this incident for Cohen who became increasingly paranoid about it. A day or two later, Lindsey was visiting me at my offices. Leonard Cohen showed up and Lindsey was furious and left. Cohen called Lindsey who informed him that he was playing with Ray and was unable to speak. This caused further problems with me and Cohen.
19. As another example, one night when we were all at one of Adam Cohen’s concerts in Los Angeles, Lindsey, Cohen, Sharon Robinson (Cohen’s background singer and co-writer who knows Lindsey quite well) and I were all present. Lindsey refused to say hello to Cohen. This alarmed Cohen as he was forced to make up some type of story to explain it away for Sharon Robinson.
Cohen’s obsessive behavior with me began to infest other relationships. For example, my relationship with Paul Burger, former President of Sony Europe, and a very close friend of mine. Cohen would attempt to extract information from Adam Cohen about men I spoke to and I distinctly recall Adam Cohen advising me that his father questioned him about my interactions with Paul Burger during our trip, related to a Sony conference, to Marbella, Spain. I was forced to ask Adam Cohen not to provide any information about me to his father because it became almost impossible to work with Cohen by then.
20. This behavior of Cohen’s towards me continued up until the time we parted ways. Not too long before we parted ways, in October 2004, Cohen called and asked me to stop over. My office was a block from his home. I walked over and sat down next to him at his desk. He was working on his computer. He said to me, “I want to show you something.” He also said “I’m typing in the words shit, cunt, piss, fuck” and the next thing I knew Cohen was reviewing images of people online defecating on one another. I was truly horrified in part by what my younger son could view online. I returned to the office, explained to my mother that I would never again visit Cohen alone, and recall going home to speak to my sons about online sex. That conversation led me to conclude that children were indeed exposed to potentially outrageous information and/or images online.
21. This type of conduct in no way resembles a statutory “dating relationship.” It is sick, twisted, and deviant conduct. The position of the City Attorney, as well as the lies and false statements the prosecutor conveyed to jurors, was and remains unconscionable. California, as the Appellate Court noted in Oriola v. Thaler, has not adequately defined a “dating relationship.” The new definition, which was created after the Oriola decision, is insufficient as well. I am now dealing with a government assigned “dating relationship,” granted to Cohen without my being notified of same, without the statutory required relationship – after a long history of sexual abuse by Cohen, based upon a fraudulent restraining order issued in Colorado – that was NOT domestic violence – without findings due to the fact that I found the proceedings and Cohen and his lawyers “insane.” Leonard Cohen and I did not have a “dating relationship” characterized by “frequent, intimate associations primarily characterized by the expectation of affection or sexual involvement independent of financial considerations.” I assume the latter may relate to sex workers but it could also relate to a female colleague who served as Cohen’s personal manager as our work was reliant upon financial considerations. This statute, as it applies to this situation, is not only unconstitutional but it is vile, revolting, and should sicken people. The fact that the State of California receives VAWA funds for assigning people this type of relationship is equally abhorrent. This information is also transmitted into government databases for which there are apparently no remedies when and if fraudulent information is transmitted to, for example, CLETS or the Domestic Violence databases.
I declare under the penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct.
This declaration is executed on this 20th day of October 2016 in Los Angeles, California.
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Kelley Lynch
Domestic or Dating Violence. California Penal Code Section 13700. ... (b) “Domestic violence” means abuse committed against an adult or a minor who is a spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or person with whom the suspect has had a child or is having or has had a dating or engagement relationship.
Who Can Be a Victim of Domestic Abuse?
AB 16 amends Penal Code Section 273.5 to classify the following as those who can be victims of domestic abuse:
- The offender’s spouse or former spouse;
- The offender’s cohabitant or former cohabitant;
- The offender’s fiancé or fiancée, or someone with whom the offender has, or previously had, an engagement or dating relationship; and
- The mother or father of the offender’s child.
The new law specifies “dating relationship” as “frequent, intimate associations primarily characterized by the expectation of affection or sexual involvement independent of financial considerations.”
