Leonard Cohen's ex-business manager gets 18 months

A former business manager for singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in Los Angeles County Jail for violating restraining orders and sending Cohen and others thousands of harassing emails and voicemail messages.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Vanderet said Kelley Lynch, 55, showed "no remorse" for a "long, unrelenting barrage of harassing behavior." 

"No person should be subject to that kind of targeting by anyone," Vanderet said.

Lynch was convicted last week on five counts of violating no-contact protective orders and two counts of repeatedly contacting Cohen with the intent to annoy or harass. All counts were misdemeanor.

Lynch also was sentenced to five years of summary probation. While in custody, she must undergo anger management training, psychological training and alcohol education sessions.

"I do believe that I have engaged in excessive and unauthorized rambling," Lynch, wearing a blue jumpsuit and with her left hand cuffed to her chair, told the judge.

Lynch, however, was defiant, saying prosecutors carried out a "vicious attack" on her. She said she believed she could "stay away from" Cohen and was "willing to go to anger management."

Reading a prepared statement, Cohen, 77, said he believed Lynch would resume contacting him once she was released from custody.

"It gives me no pleasure...to see my one-time friend shackled to a chair in a court of law," Cohen said.

Lynch had a business and personal relationship for about 17 years with Cohen, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cohen said he fired her as his business manager in 2004.

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-- Hailey Branson-Potts  

Photo: Kelley Lynch, left, a former business manager for singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen, appears in Los Angeles County Superior Court with her public defender, Nikhil A. Ramnaney, on April 6. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times