Jacques Delisle, the retired Quebec judge charged today with first degree murder.
She was his loyal secretary, his faithful friend, his secret lover. But at no point could Johanne Plamondon imagine that her boss and beloved confidant, former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Jacques Delisle, was capable of murdering his ailing wife to share his life with her.
In attempting to establish motive for the alleged murder, the prosecution ordered Ms. Plamondon to take the stand on Wednesday and reveal her darkest secrets about an affair and professional relationship with Mr. Delisle that spanned several years.
Mr. Delisle, 77, who retired from the bench in 2009, is the first Canadian judge to be charged with premeditated murder. At first it was presumed that his wife, 71-year-old Marie-Nicole Rainville, committed suicide after her body was found in November, 2009, at the couple's posh condo in the upscale district of Sillery in Quebec City. A gun was found by her side, with a gunshot wound to her head.
Using testimony from ballistic experts, the Crown alleges that Ms. Rainville, who had suffered a stroke two years earlier and was paralyzed in half her body, was so incapacitated that it was impossible for her to shoot herself. A police investigation suspected foul play and charged Mr. Delisle with murder in June, 2010.
Throughout the years of caring for his ailing wife and even after her death, Mr. Delisle maintained an intimate relationship with Ms. Plamondon.
She became his secretary after he was appointed as a Quebec Superior Court judge in 1983 and followed him after his promotion to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1992.
"We got along well … and over time he became someone I could consider as a friend," Ms. Plamondon said in her testimony.
But then a few months before Ms. Rainville suffered a stroke in April, 2007, the long-time friendship evolved and Ms. Plamondon became the judge's mistress, a secret she kept from the husband to whom she was married for 34 years.
The soft-spoken, 57-year-old woman was visibly uncomfortable about revealing the details of her secret love affair. She explained that often Mr. Delisle would pick her up at the public library parking garage and drive her to the courthouse, using the few precious minutes alone to talk, embrace and kiss. At times, she said, she would take afternoons off work to spend time with Mr. Delisle.
"I thought the affair would end after he retired. But it didn't," she said.
Ms. Plamondon explained that her private life was in shambles and that she was ill. "I was going through a depression," she said. Following his wife's death, Mr. Delisle urged her to move in with him, a decision she found difficult to make. They planned to take a cruise together.
When she finally mustered enough courage to tell her husband that she was leaving him for Mr. Delisle, the former judge was charged – the very next day – with murder.
"I didn't tell my husband everything but I told him that Mr. Delisle would take me in," she said. "But the next day Mr. Delisle was arrested. So I never left."
Noted defence lawyer Jacques Larochelle, representing Mr. Delisle, asked the witness a single question during cross-examination. "Did Mr. Delisle tell you that if you said no [to his offer]that he would accept it and would never raise the issue again?" Mr. Larochelle asked. "Yes," Ms. Plamondon responded, ending her testimony.
On Thursday, the defence will begin presenting its witnesses as the trial completes its third week, with the expectation that it could last for another week.