Leonard Cohen - live in NYC tonight, 'Live in London' on CD

Toughest ticket in town tonight.

see you all there!

Leonard CONAN!!!

I can't wait. he is also playing in Austin on April 2nd. Official announcement on his website at 12:01 am tonight!

I'll trade my collection of MGMT's fingernail clippings and used tissues for a ticket!

C'mon!

I will be litigating this situation and am waiting to speak to Bruce Cutler and Phil Spector. I don't think Cohen, who appears to have committed criminal tax fraud, etc., is all that impressive.

Kelley Lynch

Note: Kelley Lynch needs to make some factual corrections to this
article. It is, however, a good solid version of events.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Whatever Happened to Kelley Lynch?
A Case of Psychiatric Abuse
Kelley Lynch is the woman accused in 2005 of skimming millions from
singer Leonard Cohen's retirement fund. I knew of her through friends
of Leonard Cohen, and had heard her described in glowing terms as the
agent who, single-handedly, saved Cohen's career in the 1990s.
In early May of this year, Lynch suddenly contacted me. She said she
was mainly interested in my perceptions of Cohen as a former friend
and next door neighbour in Montreal. At one time I also studied with
his Zen Master in California, and had spent time with him on Hydra,
Greece.

Not having heard her side of the story (I doubt that anyone has, apart
from a circle of her closest friends), I was curious. Over the next
few weeks, she shared several documents pertaining to the case
including an affidavit written by her older son, Rutger, which
corroborates her story.

The following account is based on what Lynch has sent me. It suggests
she was the victim of a "coordinated kidnapping" carried out by the
LAPD and Inglewood PD, which ended in her being taken to King-Drew
Hospital, 40 miles from her home, where she was held overnight,
chained to a chair, and given powerful drugs without permission or
authorization.

****************************************************

Since 2005 when she became the object of media gossip, little if
anything has been heard from Kelley Lynch.

A single mother with two sons, Lynch was Leonard Cohen's personal
manager from approximately 1988 to 2004, and was known for her skill,
hard work, and dedication. Until 2004, Kelley lived and worked in Los
Angeles where she still has many friends and acquaintances in the
entertainment world including Phil Spector and Oliver Stone.

Her own account of the events that wrecked her career, varies widely
from the media portrait of a reckless, delusional woman in the throes
of a personal meltdown. The meltdown was real, however. By late
December, 2005, Lynch had lost custody of one son and was homeless and
living on the streets with her older son, Rutger, who witnessed the
chain of bizarre events that had begun a year earlier.

In 2004, Lynch owned a house in Brentwood, and still worked for Cohen,
who owed her money for royalties and other services, but was
increasingly involved with his new girlfriend, Anjani Thomas, ex-wife
of Cohen's attorney, Robert Kory.

In retrospect, Lynch believes she was set up by Cohen's lawyers and
accountants to help cover up a tax situation which made the IRS
"nervous." In November 2004, Cohen's attorney Kory told Lynch that a
financial entity known as Traditional Holdings, LLC could be
overturned by the IRS. Lynch, who had been selected as a partner on
the entity, became uneasy and consulted a new accountant, who referred
her to tax lawyers, who found irregularities in Cohen's tax history,
both in the US and Canada where he has residences.

Rattled by what she was hearing – that she was being dragged into
criminal tax fraud -- Lynch called the IRS in Washington and also
contacted their website. An IRS collection agent advised her to call
the Fraud Hotline, which she did.

Told that any further action on her part might implicate her in fraud,
Lynch refused to meet with Cohen or turn over the corporate books. At
that stage, Cohen's advisers began claiming that certain payments,
distributions, or advances made to her were actually "over-payments."
Lynch says their accounting was incomplete and ignored her share of
intellectual property, unpaid commissions and royalties, and share in
Traditional Holdings, LLC. Apparently Lynch had also been issued K1
partnership tax documents and made a partner on another Cohen
investment entity, LC Investments, LLC, without her permission or
awareness.

Lynch says an increasingly nervous and desperate Cohen was pressuring
her to agree to mediation and told a friend of hers that Lynch was
"the love of his life." She and Cohen had had a brief affair in 1990,
but Cohen now was offering her 50% of his "community property" as well
as "palimony" through lawyer Robert Kory at a meeting attended by
Lynch's legal representatives and her accountant, Dale Burgess. To
Lynch, none of this made sense at the time.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office received an
anonymous tip informing them that Lynch was a friend of producer Phil
Spector, whom Lynch maintains is innocent. Cohen, on the other hand,
had given an interview in which he described a gun-waving Spector who
threatened him during recording sessions in 1977.

At around the same time he was offering her "millions", Lynch says,
Cohen was also circulating slanderous stories about her. She believes
Cohen encouraged Los Angeles record producer Steve Lindsey, the father
of her son Ray, to initiate a custody suit – on May 25, 2005, the same
day a 25-man SWAT team from the LAPD, acting on a bogus 911 call,
suddenly cordoned off her street and surrounded her home in response
to a "hostage taking."

Earlier that morning, Lynch says, her 12-year-old son Ray woke up not
feeling well. She sent an email to his school informing them she was
keeping him at home. When the boy's father found out Ray was home he
became agitated and abusive over the phone to Lynch.

Lynch says she had young people who worked for her coming and going
that day, and did not want Ray's father coming to the house and
attacking her, as he had in the past. She called her older son Rutger,
who was visiting a friend nearby, and asked him to pick Ray up and
take him down the hill where actress Cloris Leachman waited in her
car. Leachman, a friend of Lindsey, took charge of Ray – just as seven
LAPD squad cars came speeding up Mandeville Canyon Road in the
direction of Lynch's house. With them was Ray's father, Steve Lindsey.

Lynch says she looked out the window and saw armed men on her lawn.
Her son Rutger and his friends were telling police there was no
hostage-taking, that they had spent the morning with Lynch, and that
there must be some mistake. For reasons no one understands,
LAPD/Inglewood PD decided to believe Steve Lindsey, who had left the
scene.

Police later gave varying explanations about what led up to the
incident. West LAPD said they responded to a report that someone heard
"shots fired." But a company that oversees SWAT said Lynch would have
to have a superior caliber weapon to warrant such a high risk entry. A
member of the SWAT team claimed to have seen a note that Lynch's
sister had placed the call stating Lynch posed "a danger to herself
and everyone around her." Her sister denies this.

Lynch stayed inside her house and called her former custody lawyer,
Lee Kanon Alpert. She also called Leonard Cohen, assuming he had
played a role in the events unfolding on her lawn. Lynch says she knew
Steve Lindsey had also been meeting with Cohen and his attorney, and
had recently told their son Ray that Lynch was "going to jail,"
upsetting the boy. She says Cohen taped the phone call later used in
his successful court case against her – for which, Lynch says, she
never received a summons.

Lynch says, "Police were on my hillside and crouching under my kitchen
window." She says the standoff on her lawn continued for several more
hours, disrupting the neighborhood. Members of Inglewood Police
Department also participated in the operation.

Eventually, she decided to go into the back yard. Seeing her son
Rutger acting as a "human shield and hostage negotiator," Lynch
ventured out front with her Akita on leash and joked to the cops: "Who
am I supposed to be holding hostage? My dog?"

The police responded by telling her son they would only shoot Lynch
and her dog if necessary.

"That was when I dove into the pool."

SWAT team members searched her house. As they entered, Lynch's African
Grey parrot, Lou, called out: "I see dead people!" – further alarming
the nervous cops.

Offering her a hand out of the pool, one officer said they were only
there to help her and not to hurt her.

"No one asked me if I was all right; no one questioned me about my
well-being." The Medical Examiners Office later wondered how the
police had evaluated her. After stating they were not arresting her,
they handcuffed Lynch, still in her bikini. On her way out the door,
her son managed to hand her a brocade jacket.

Although she lived near UCLA Medical Center, she was taken in a squad
car to King-Drew Medical Center in Watts, 40 miles away and a
three-hour drive in traffic. Known as one of America's worst
hospitals, King-Drew was recently closed down as a place where
patients routinely die from neglect and medical errors. During the
long ride through South Central Los Angeles, Lynch says she was
questioned closely about her relationship with Phil Spector, who had
been charged with first-degree murder of Lana Clarkson. In the car,
Lynch voiced concern over what awaited her at the hospital but was
told by a woman cop: "This will be good for you."

"I felt I was being kidnapped".

At Emergency, the admitting psychiatrist administered anti-psychotic
drugs without authorization and left Lynch in the waiting area for
hours, still in her bikini and brocade jacket, handcuffed to a chair.
A nurse advised her she would be transferred – but did not tell her
where. Examining her file, the nurse noticed it listed her as 19 years
old with wrong social security number, wrong date of birth, wrong
religion, and her name misspelled as "Kelly Lynch" Lynch thinks it was
the same file she had seen, several months earlier, in the hands of
the Special Investigator who came to question her about Spector.

A second doctor told her to wait her turn to ensure no further harm
would come to her, and assured her that nothing in the King Drew
report could cause her to lose custody of her child. The following
day, she was released after nearly 24 hours in the psych ward.

Back home, Lynch learned that while she was being held at the hospital
her younger son's father, Steven Clark Lindsey, had filed for custody
of her son Ray Charles Lindsey and obtained a restraining order
denying her access to the boy. She says Lindsey attempted to convince
doctors at King Drew that she was dangerous, in order to have her
committed, She says Lindsey also threatened the psychiatrist who had
her released.

On that same day, Cohen's attorney Robert Kory filed a Declaration in
the custody matter, as did Betsy Superfon (a friend of Cohen, Kory and
Lindsey who had befriended Lynch a few months earlier ). Superfon
later told Lynch she didn't realize what she was signing, and that
Cohen had offered Lindsey money "or something else" to take Ray away
from Lynch.

Her older son alleges Lindsey offered him money to go to Leonard
Cohen's lawyer's office and transfer or sign over Lynch's house to
Cohen or his attorney Robert Kory. Rutger refused and phoned his own
father, who advised him to contact a lawyer.

Two weeks later, in early June, as she drove down her street to buy
dog food, a Mercedes sped out of a neighbouring driveway and
rear-ended her car, Lynch was thrown forward, fracturing her nose
against the steering well, and was knocked unconscious. Later, she
says, as she drove back up the hill to her home, the same driver was
standing in his driveway and called out: "We are watching you" as she
passed.

Seeing his injured, bleeding mother enter the house, her older son
again phoned his father, who may have called 911. Accounts vary as
whether the call referred to an incident of "domestic violence" or a
"drug overdose." Either way, police arrived at Lynch's door for the
second time in two weeks. Over the protests of her son, they entered
while she was on the phone to a friend, Dr. Wendi Knaak who stayed on
the phone talking with Rutger while police again handcuffed Lynch.
This time they took her to UCLA hospital where her obvious head
injuries were ignored. Instead, she was once again drugged and placed
in the psychiatric unit where she remained for several days.

Lynch and her advisors maintain these events were coordinated by
Cohen, Kory and Lindsey, with the help of former LA District Attorney
Ira Reiner in a well- orchestrated plan to traumatize and discredit
her – paving the way for media stories which accused her of skimming
millions from Cohen's retirement fund.

In the summer of 2005, as Lynch was struggling to save her home and
protect her child from a father her friends describe as "viciously
anti-social" and "violent", reports of Leonard Cohen's financial
troubles hit the press. They alleged the 70-something singer had been
scammed by his personal manager, Kelley Lynch, who colluded with an
advisor at the AGILE Group in Colorado to send him false financial
statements while emptying his accounts of millions of dollars.

Although listed as the owner of Traditional Holdings, the entity in
question, Lynch says she never received any statements from the AGILE
Group -- who instead had been sending them to Cohen -- having changed
her mailing address to Cohen's home in Los Angeles. She has since
filed a complaint with the US Post Office for mail tampering.

She insists Cohen sued her because she went to the IRS about his tax
situation. She says he is not, and never was, "broke" and that missing
funds went to buy homes for his son Adam Cohen and girlfriend, singer
Anjani Thomas, ex-wife of Robert Kory. Noting Cohen is famous for his
financial largesse and once gave Zen Master Sasaki Roshi $500,000 as a
gift, Lynch also cites hefty payments to advisers, various transaction
fees, personal taxes, and other monies which may have been sent
offshore.

While Cohen and Lindsey attempted to persuade others, including LA
Superior Court, that she intended to flee to Tibet or another
non-extradition country, Lynch was isolated and penniless and still in
Los Angeles. Lynch was former personal secretary to the late Chogyam
Trungpa Rinpoche, a flamboyant Tibetan spiritual teacher who founded
Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s, and died in 1987.
She says various Tibetan lamas are praying for her safety.
[Correction – Lynch was
a student of Trungpa Rinpoche; she helped raise his son, Gesar Mukpo,
and believes
may have led to some confusion on the part of the author]

Journalists covering the story were either unable, or didn't bother,
to track Lynch down, and most reported Cohen's statements as fact. The
NY Times contacted Kelley for a quote which they never printed

By July 2005, Lynch had lost her custody battle and Ray went to live
with his father. On December 28, she and Rutger were evicted from the
house in Brentwood, and ended up homeless in Santa Monica, which has
no resources for the homeless. The Police Department gave her no help
and, she claims, laughed when she brought in evidence that she was
being stalked by a known serial killer while she camped on the beach.

In 2006, Cohen was awarded a symbolic $9 million settlement in a civil
suit against Lynch, who still does not have a lawyer representing her.
Corporate books and other evidence of fraud appear to have been
overlooked by Judge Ken Freeman in his judgment, Lynch says, although
she admits she has not read the court documents and was never served a
summons. At the time of the decision, she told reporters she lacked
the money to make a phone call. That same year, her older son lost his
fingers in an accident with a meat grinder while he was working at
Whole Foods in Los Angeles and Lynch could not afford a bus ticket to
visit him in hospital.

Lynch heard through a journalist that Cohen later testified for the
District Attorney's office in a secret grand jury relating to the Phil
Spector case with former District Attorney Ira Reiner acting as his
lawyer. As D.A., Reiner presided over some high-profile cases
including the "Night Stalker" serial killer and the McMartin Day Care
scandal.

Recently, on June 17, 2008, Cohen's lawsuit against the Agile Group
was thrown out of court for lack of evidence. In response the AGILE
Group dropped its counter-suit accusing Cohen of defamation and fraud.
AGILE still claims to be shocked that a singer of Leonard Cohen's
talent and stature would engage in false accusations against his own
representatives.

Lynch believes Cohen and AGILE colluded to defraud her. She continues
to deny all allegations against her, and remains hopeful that Phil
Spector's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, will represent her in recouping
damages to her livelihood and reputation. She now lives in another
state and recently learned her younger son, 15, whom she has not seen
since July 2005, stopped attending school last January.

These days Cohen's fans seem to have expended their rage at Kelley
Lynch for driving their idol into bankruptcy. Some now say she
unwittingly did them a service -- by forcing him to go on tour for the
first time in nearly two decades.

At 74, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen continues to ride a wave of
sympathy, gathering wide support from the music world and even some
British royalty. Unquestionably, his career and finances have
benefited from news reports that he is too impoverished to retire.

From his tower of song, Cohen has written:

I smile when I'm angry
I cheat and I lie
I do what I have to do
To get by

And I'm always alone
And my heart is like ice
And it's crowded and cold
In my secret life

(My Secret Life -- Leonard Cohen)

His many admirers need to listen closely.

2 shows at Radio City Music Hall in either April or May. Announced soon.

think he'll break out of the routine setlist he's been doing all tour thus far? i'm hoping for some "famous blue raincoat," "avalanche" and more songs off Recent Songs. The tour's emphasis on post-Various Positions albums is a little disappointing, but he is such a legend that it doesn't even matter once you see him live.

^^^^I think 3 hours shows with a large cast doesn't allow for a whole lot of variation from the set list.

yeah but he's occasionally broken out "avalanche" and "famous blue raincoat" throughout the tour on random nights... so i'm just saying i hope NY is treated to something nice like that.

Anyone know what time he's supposed to go on tonight?

doors at 7, lc at 8

A lot of fake tickets being peddled on craigslist.
Hopefully there won't be a scene ala AC at Bowery.

Reception at 6, General Doors at 7, LC at 8 with a short intermission around 9:30.

"A lot of fake tickets being peddled on craigslist.
Hopefully there won't be a scene ala AC at Bowery."

Hey, you think i made a killing with AC at Bowery, you have no idea how well I did with this show. Also, I will be at the Beacon for this show. I will be taping it. Look for me with mics attached to my glasses and say Hi.

"Hey, you think i made a killing with AC at Bowery, you have no idea how well I did with this show. Also, I will be at the Beacon for this show. I will be taping it. Look for me with mics attached to my glasses and say Hi."

asshole

tonights show was awesome. but such a clusterfuck of insanity. zero crowd control. but all worth it to see mr. cohen

north american tour dates announced here:

http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/aeg-live-confirms-leonard-cohen-s-north-american-tour--/de/Unternehmensnachrichten/20060249

5/16 Radio City Music Hall New York, NY

Kelley Lynch is clearly suffering from a form of severe mental illness called delusional disorder in the persecutory form.

Non-bizarre delusions are considered to be plausible; that is, there is a possibility that what the person believes to be true could actually occur a small proportion of the time.

People with delusional disorder interpret normal situations that could occur in real life, such as being followed, deceived or conspired against but exaggerate or interpret these as part of a persecution campaign against them. For example they may suspect others of participating in elaborate master plots to persecute them or that they are the targets of conspiracies to ruin their reputations or even to kill them.

A characteristic non-bizarre delusion which Kelley Lynch seems to suffer from, is the belief that one's activities are constantly under observation by federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies, which actually does occur for a small number of people.

These delusions are held with a high level of conviction, and are highly resistant to change even when the delusional person is exposed to forms of proof that contradict the belief.

Sufferers sometimes engage in litigation in an attempt to redress imagined injustices. In reality, however, the situations are either not true at all or highly exaggerated.

Munro (1999) refers to an article by Freckelton who identifies the following characteristics of deluded litigants: determination to succeed against all odds, tendency to identify the barriers as conspiracies, endless drive to right a wrong, quarrelsome behaviors, and "saturating the field" with multiple complaints and suspiciousness. Kelley Lynch has bombarded the authorities with complaints about her imagined persecution by almost everyone.

Delusional disorder most often occurs in middle to late life and is slightly more common in women than in men.

Dear Sigmond Freud,

Back to the parlor games. I, instead, will continue to wait for Bruce Cutler and will litigate this situation against Cohen and others. What's delusional about reporting criminal tax fraud to the IRS?

Kelley Lynch

Kelley Lynch is clearly suffering from a form of severe mental illness called delusional disorder in the persecutory form.

Non-bizarre delusions are considered to be plausible; that is, there is a possibility that what the person believes to be true could actually occur a small proportion of the time.

People with delusional disorder interpret normal situations that could occur in real life, such as being followed, deceived or conspired against but exaggerate or interpret these as part of a persecution campaign against them. For example they may suspect others of participating in elaborate master plots to persecute them or that they are the targets of conspiracies to ruin their reputations or even to kill them.

A characteristic non-bizarre delusion which Kelley Lynch seems to suffer from, is the belief that one's activities are constantly under observation by federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies, which actually does occur for a small number of people.

These delusions are held with a high level of conviction, and are highly resistant to change even when the delusional person is exposed to forms of proof that contradict the belief.

Sufferers sometimes engage in litigation in an attempt to redress imagined injustices. In reality, however, the situations are either not true at all or highly exaggerated.

Munro (1999) refers to an article by Freckelton who identifies the following characteristics of deluded litigants: determination to succeed against all odds, tendency to identify the barriers as conspiracies, endless drive to right a wrong, quarrelsome behaviors, and "saturating the field" with multiple complaints and suspiciousness. Kelley Lynch has bombarded the authorities with complaints about her imagined persecution by almost everyone.

Delusional disorder most often occurs in middle to late life and is slightly more common in women than in men.

Leonard Cohen has a $9 million dollar judgment against Kelley Lynch based on the money missing from Cohen's estate.

This judgment stands as conclusively establishing as fact the allegations in the suit.

Although Lynch has claimed that she was never properly served with the suit, she has never filed a motion with the court requesting that the $9 million judgment be set aside on that basis.

Lynch posts all over internet whenever the topic of Cohen or Phil Spector is posted, and then puts forth her strange and eccentric view of reality.

At that point other commenters question her sanity and then Lynch claims that she is going to hire Bruce Cutler to investigate and/or sue, and then she cc's her rants to the IRS, DEA, US Justice Department, and a list of high profile attorneys who she has never met.

Lynch has also written to the Justice Department on scores of occasions demanding that they investigate who this "anon" who is following her to all the blogs and posting that she is crazy. (She posts all of this correspondence on her two blogs).

Leonard Cohen has no such judgment. Study due process. I was not served. Study fraud and perjury. I own the entities he "claimed" I was a trustee on. Blue Mist Touring is not Cohen's estate - it is an entity that owns publishing (of which I own 15% and have stock certificates, etc., to prove. The judgment proves nothing - other than this was Cohen's bogus response to my reporting his tax fraud that I was told is criminal to the IRS.

I won't be filing a motion. I have said, ad nauseum, that I will be suing Cohen and attaching his fraud lawsuit and bogus financials as evidence. I am not asking that the judgment be set aside - I think that amount should be considered one form of damages since it's been repeated in the press so often.

You are not even involved in this and have followed me around the internet posting about me. Why would an absolute stranger engage in this type of activity and conduct?

I have claimed that I am waiting for Bruce Cutler and unless you are Bruce Cutler or his agent/representative I cannot even imagine why you are speculating about his intentions. Seems unwise - to say the very least.

Visit my Blog. I have documented everything I've gone through - since approximately the summer of 2005 - for many parties including the IRS Commissioner's Staff. Agent Kelly Sopko and her partner, who visited me in California, confirmed that the Commissioner's Staff were reading them. Please email them directly for a confirmation:

*IRS.Commissioner@irs.gov
Kelly.Sopko@tigta.treas.gov

Let them know that I am furious that I am being slandered and defamed for merely doing what I felt was the correct thing to do - pay the taxes I was told I had outstanding (in full) and report Cohen's fraud to the IRS. I have also written to the Department of Justice and have contacted the DEA and Immigration. Vocal citizens are permitted to contact their government. I do believe the DEA should investigate if there are two drug related deaths in the Phil Spector matter (Lana Clarkson and Diane Ogden) and I believe Immigration should investigate Phillip's driver and determine if there was witness tampering with respect to him. Seems straightforward. Their email and contact information is public record - write them and disagree. That's called freedom of speech.

Yes, I am keeping Bruce Cutler, Doron Weinberg, and Dennis Riordan closely apprised. Since you don't seem to know me how do you know that I haven't met them?

Anon - you are posting on blogs and appear to be cyber-stalking me. What's your point? That you're a complete idiot?

Kelley Lynch