Nygard lawyer accused of professional misconduct

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This article was published 26/08/2021 (1474 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg lawyer Jay Prober is up against two counts of professional misconduct for comments he made to the media last year as he defended fallen fashion magnate Peter Nygard.

“In contrast with how disappointing the pursuit of justice against (Peter) Nygard has been, this has been a small and sweet victory,” said former Winnipegger KC Allan, whose complaint to the Law Society of Manitoba prompted the charges.

Allan, 58, filed a complaint last year after Prober made comments to both the Free Press and CBC alleging several women who had accused Nygard of sexually assaulting them were trying to cash in on the sexual assault claims.

Nygard, 80, has been held in Headingley Correctional Centre since his arrest last December and is awaiting possible extradition to the U.S. to face sex trafficking and racketeering charges that date back decades.

According to law society correspondence shared with the Free Press, one of the charges against Prober is for failing to be courteous and civil and act in good faith, while the second is for making public statements that may prejudice a party’s right to a fair trial.

“Prober is part of the system that reoffends against victims,” Allan said. “If we can at least make it a more civilized process by which women come forward, that will be a victory.”

Allan, who lives in the U.S., has accused Nygard of raping her in 1979, when she was 17, after the two met at an Exchange District nightclub. Allan filed a complaint with Winnipeg police in June 2020.

Prober, under threat of a defamation lawsuit, penned a letter of apology saying he wasn’t aware of Allan when in February 2020 he was quoted in the Free Press as saying, “A lot of people see dollar signs and they are jumping on the bandwagon.”

In another Free Press interview the following April, Prober said: “And, as I predicted before, more women are jumping on what they perceived to be the money train, the gravy train. They see this as a cash cow.”

Prober made similar comments to the CBC.

Prober declined to comment about the misconduct charges to the Free Press.

“As the matter is pending, I have decided it would not be politic to make any comments at this stage, even though I would like to,” he said Thursday.

Winnipeg police confirmed officers had completed an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Nygard and had forwarded their findings to the Manitoba Prosecution Service.

“I’d like to celebrate the moment, but it’s a bittersweet victory, because I am still waiting to hear if the charges I made against (Nygard) are going to be pursued,” Allan said. “It’s a 40-year-old crime, so I don’t have a lot of confidence that they will be pursuing it.”

Nygard’s extradition hearing is set to begin Nov. 15.

The U.S indictment against Nygard alleges that from 1995 to 2020, Nygard – alongside his business associates and co-conspirators – engaged in a “pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada.”

Nygard is accused of raping and sex trafficking young girls, often targeting individuals from “disadvantaged backgrounds” with a “history of abuse,” and keeping them quiet via “threats, false promises of modelling opportunities” and “other coercive means.”

Nygard has twice been denied bail, with the courts ruling his bail plan did not address concerns he might tamper with witnesses if released.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca