Judge Donald Bisson today withdrew the class action lawsuit filed by 29 alleged victims against Montreal businessman Robert Miller in February.
According to the information we were able to obtain, Judge Bisson concluded that his impartiality had been questioned by the young woman’s lawyer. No request for rejection was presented to him.
Nothing indicated this turnaround. Victims’ attorney Jeff Orenstein was scheduled to file a motion Thursday to compel the questioning of the billionaire, who is said to have an advanced form of Parkinson’s disease.
Before presenting his motion, Mr. Orenstein also asked the judge for a copy of a mysterious anonymous email that would have been sent to Robert Miller’s attorneys.
That email, intended to contain information furthering Robert Miller’s cause, was the subject of a separate request from the billionaire’s attorneys on July 7, without Me Orenstein being notified.
The purpose of the motion was to force multinational Google to reveal the IP address of the owner of the email address so Robert Miller’s lawyers could contact that person.
The motion was granted by Judge Bisson, who was hearing urgent cases at the Montreal courthouse that day. The judge ordered Google to disclose the identity of the email’s author to Robert Miller’s lawyers. It is unclear whether Google has complied.
On Thursday, Me Orenstein accused Mr Miller’s attorneys of knowingly submitting that motion to Judge Bisson, who was already dealing with the 29 young women’s class action complaint. Recognizing that there might appear to be a bias about the future, Judge Bisson decided to retire.
According to Judge Bisson, another judge will be appointed to replace him in this case. It will be this judge who will be responsible for deciding future applications, including the application to question Mr. Miller.
Remember that last February’s Enquête program revealed Robert Miller’s involvement in the creation of a network to exploit young girls for sexual purposes between 1994 and 2006. Mr. Miller has always denied having sexual relationships with underage girls.