 Immigration board judge Steve Ellis (left) was found guilty of breach of trust and bribery allegations for asking a refugee claimant, Ji Hye Kim (right), for sexual relations in exchange for a favourable ruling. (QMI Agency)
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TORONTO - It hardly looked like an even match.
He was a big shot refugee board judge, a former city councillor, a powerful Canadian man.
While Ji Hye Kim was a slight, shy 25-year-old refugee claimant from South Korea, physically abused by her father and in fear of his creditors, who was depending on Steve Ellis to hear her plight and grant her asylum in Canada.
He probably saw the beautiful woman as an easy target, helpless and desperate.
And so he propositioned her for sex, with the clear understanding that, in return, the married father of two would approve her application.
But Kim was not the victim he supposed her to be.
Thanks to her surreptitious recording of his overture, Ellis is now heading to jail for 18 months, fired from his job, facing disciplinary action from the law society and his once-sterling reputation in tatters.
The 51-year-old showed no emotion Thursday as Justice Thea Herman rejected his lawyer John Rosen's call for a conditional sentence to be served at home and instead said his attempt to extort sex from Kim required "denunciation in the strongest terms."
"Mr. Ellis had enormous power over Miss Kim," the judge said. "Her entire future rested on him."
His jail term is far shorter than the three to 31/2 years sought by federal Crown attorney Lynda Trefler, but for Kim and her husband, Brad Tripp, it was vindication at last.
"It's been a long, long four years," Kim said outside the court, a relieved smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Justice was served."
When Tripp, her then-boyfriend, realized what Ellis was after, he convinced Kim to secretly record their Sept. 26, 2006, meeting at an outdoor Starbucks patio while Tripp shot video from across the street.
Ellis told her he was going to have her deported but was having second thoughts. He told her she was as beautiful as a model and that he really wanted to be "friends" with her.
"You've got a boyfriend and I've got a wife," he said in his lecherous attempt to blackmail her. "If we do things on the side, that's OK."
The couple took those tapes to the RCMP, and Ellis was charged with breach of trust and bribery.
But what if she hadn't had a wily boyfriend? Abused by men in her own country, new to this one, how did she even have the courage to take him on?
Kim said she had to send a message to others in a position of power. "This should never happen to anyone."
Ellis' lawyer argued that he suffered from bipolar disorder and his illness caused his uncharacteristic conduct.
While the judge accepted his diagnosis as a mitigating factor, she didn't believe it excused his behaviour.
"As a lawyer and a six-year member of the Immigration Review Board, Mr. Ellis knew what he was doing was wrong," she said.
That was obvious, by the way he twice went looking for Kim at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress before finally finding her there, using untraceable payphones to call her and telling her to keep their meeting secret or he'd be "screwed."
This was hardly a spontaneous, impulsive proposition.
"He placed his interests and his need for sexual gratification" above his duty, the judge ruled.
One side of the courtroom was filled with his relatives and his wife, who has continually stood by his side.
But despite the best efforts of his prominent attorney and 56 letters of support, Ellis would not be coming home with them.
The once powerful man was led away to begin serving his sentence, though he was accorded the privilege of having no handcuffs locked on his wrists.
But Ellis won't be behind bars for too long. Rosen said he has instructions to file an appeal, so his client might be sprung on bail as early as next week.
For now, though, Kim's victory is sweet. It may have been an uneven match, but she outsmarted him in the end.
And while the disgraced IRB judge was being booked and placed in a holding cell, the brave permanent resident of Canada went out for lunch with her husband.
michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca
