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 concern. 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 teacher. 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 interpersonal interaction with Leonard
Cohen until, after Mr. Machat’s death in 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. He was
the Machat & Machat 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. At no time were Cohen and I in a brief, intimate
statutory “dating” relationship.
6.
Apart from these two encounters, I really do not recall meeting Cohen
personally during this period of time (1994 until March 1988) until March of 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 a Buddhist
event in Colorado and when I returned 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 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 or anyone else for that matter. 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
seemed to believe that transforming me into his ex-lover made the fall out
between us, over federal tax and IRS matters, 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 Cohen’s 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.
Furthermore, in conjunction with the prosecution over a violation of a
restraining order, which I was told by Boulder Combined Court expired on
February 15, 2009, I was prosecuted for annoying Leonard Cohen over his own
conduct and with respect to federal tax matters that were blatantly false. I have now been forced to address this with
Internal Revenue Service and am dealing with a division of IRS with respect to
the entirely perjured and fraudulent legal pleadings submitted to LA Superior
Court (Case No. BC338322) and ultimately used to file/amend Cohen’s tax
returns, apply for/obtain fraudulent tax refunds, and further used to defend
Leonard Cohen with respect to the allegations that he committed criminal tax
fraud. Given the fact that I am in
possession of a memorandum from Robert Kory, stating that Cohen and his
representatives failed to report $8 million in income with respect to one
company alone, it seems impossible to believe that any intelligent person would
conclude that the federal tax controversy is a “ruse.” I am also not in receipt of the IRS required
tax and corporate information that the City Attorney argued that I had in my
possession.
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 personally
meeting with Peter Shukat. As Cohen was only in town for two days, and
was performing, 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. He was also seeing a woman from
Venezuela. 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.
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 disturbed her.
Working in this type of environment became extremely uncomfortable 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 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 was 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. Cohen and his representatives 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. Ann
Diamond immediately removed the comments.
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. The night Adam Cohen and I
planned to fly home, I met with Corky Laing.
The meeting ran a bit late and this, together with traffic, cause us to
miss our plane. 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 as 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.” Leonard Cohen was frequently in Los Angeles and lived one block
from my office. This period of time was
exceptionally difficult with respect to the sexual harassment.
15.
During the Mt. Baldy phase, from approximately January 1995 through December
1998, 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 encounters 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 at the Bel Age Hotel, 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 our relationship when in fact there was friction between them.
16.
Leonard Cohen’s kitchen was connected to his bedroom by a small room that
served as his laundry room. I would frequently sit next to the window at
his kitchen table. Cohen constantly
walked in, wearing nothing but 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 front door open, and I would
wait for him in the kitchen while he finished bathing or showing. Cohen
frequently called me into the bathroom, where he would soak in the tub. He frequently 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 business trip 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 towards me continued up until the moment we parted ways. In
October 2004, not long before we parted ways, Cohen called and asked me to stop
over. I walked over and sat down next to him at his desk. He was
working on his computer. He said “I want to show you something. I’m typing in the words shit, fuck, piss,
cunt” 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 with 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 sadistic, 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” but I
feel confident that even the most extreme definition of “dating” would not include
the conduct I was subjected to. The new
California definition, 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. This is 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 disturbing and informed the Court
that Cohen and his lawyers were “insane.” Leonard Cohen and I did not
have a “dating relationship” that involved “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. Clearly, our work was
reliant upon financial considerations regardless of LA Superior Court’s
position that I should have provided free services to Cohen. 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 15th day of November 2016 in Los
Angeles, California.
SIGNED
______________________________________
Kelley Lynch
