Jury still deliberating in $2M theft case

Michelle Bouchard

(CNS): After more than three and half hours of consideration, the four men and three women on the jury panel deciding the fate of Michelle Bouchard (55) were sent home by the judge Wednesday evening and directed to return Thursday morning.  The Grand Court judge, Acting Justice Paul Worsley, released the jury with strict conditions and warnings not to speak about the case to anyone before they return to the court tomorrow to continue their deliberations on the case, which started just over two weeks ago.

The judge spent the first half of Thursday reviewing the trial and going over the evidence presented by both the crown and the defence legal teams. The jury was sent out from the courtroom to begin considering whether the crown had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt at about 1:30pm.

Bouchard is facing 26 charges, including 15 for theft, one count of forgery, one of obtaining property by deception, three charges of transferring criminal property and six counts of attempting to transfer criminal property.  All of the charges against Bouchard, a Canadian national, relate to accusations that she defrauded James Bruce Handford (87), who is from Australia, of more than $2million.

Bouchard has denied theft and said that the money was given to her by Handford as she had agreed to marry him.