An Ontario Justice of the Peace on Wednesday described how her life has been ripped apart after she learned her lawyer husband had faked a divorce and fraudulently married another woman.

“I am lost,” Rhonda Shousterman said, reading her victim impact statement at her husband’s sentencing hearing on fraud and bigamy charges in a Newmarket courtroom — the same building where she presides.

“I will never be the person I once was. I am told that time heals all wounds but this is so deep.”

James Morton, 59, pleaded guilty in April to bigamy for marrying his law clerk, Jennifer Packwood, and fraud for forging a judge’s name on a fraudulent divorce order as well as forging the signature of a court clerk on a bogus divorce certificate.

As her hands trembled while clutching a tissue she used to occasionally dab her eyes, Shousterman said her husband’s “deceitful and callous” actions have also affected her professionally and financially.

“Cheating is bad enough, but this went way beyond cheating,” said Shousterman, who married Morton in 1990 after the couple met at Osgoode Hall Law School.

“James not only lied and cheated but he dissipated our assets to make a life with someone else. While I shopped for things when they were on sale, when I did not purchase a new winter coat because James said he was not making money, little did I know the reason he was not making money was that he had purchased a house, in Hamilton, for him and Jennifer,” she said.

“And little did I know that he bought her an engagement ring and paid for a bogus wedding in Niagara-on-the-Lake.”

At Morton’s plea in April, Packwood read a victim impact statement telling court he had conned her into believing he was divorced.

Read more:

‘Everything I believed was fabricated’: Prominent lawyer pleads guilty to faking a divorce in order to marry his law clerk

Opinion | Rosie DiManno: Licence suspended for prominent Hamilton lawyer accused of bigamy

Appeal court says Ontario judge wrong to rule ex-violin teacher had no ‘sexual purpose’ for touching young students’ breasts

On Wednesday, Morton, a former law professor, spoke publicly for the first time about what he called his “irrational” and “bizarre” conduct, which included going ahead with his illegal marriage to Packwood in May 2018 despite knowing a police investigation was already underway.

“I can’t give an explanation for what I did, I wish I could, but I can’t,” he told Justice Howard Borenstein as a tearful Shousterman sat nearby, comforted by friends. “I have lost everything, quite literally.”

Morton said he will never again practise law — he is currently under suspension — and has so far not managed to get job interviews at places such as Staples, Walmart, Canadian Tire — nor at ride-hailing services, such as Uber, because “of the charges.”

He previously practised law in Hamilton and Nunavut.

“I will survive, but, whatever the court does, I’m starting at the absolute bottom. And I accept that, I don’t deserve any better,” Morton said, adding he has been taking medication. A psychologist report submitted to the court concluded Morton was suffering from anxiety and “burn out” but found no addiction issues.

Crown attorney Robert Scott is asking that Morton receive a conditional sentence, four months to be served under house arrest and two months living with a midnight curfew.

Scott said Morton’s “continuing conduct,” is an aggravating factor. “This was not some momentary lapse of judgment,” Scott said, adding Morton’s status as a lawyer is another aggravating factor because it undermines the public’s confidence in the administration of justice.

Defence lawyer Stephen Bernstein suggested the judge grant Morton a discharge — leaving him with no criminal record — and only punish him for his actual crimes, not for leading a “double life.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“This is not the moral police,” Borenstein interjected.

The judge told Morton the consequences of what took place is a “tragic loss of reputation.” He said he wanted time to consider his decision.

The sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 11.