Dimitri Bourianov in front of State Suprene Court in Queens county.
A Queens man claims State Supreme Court Judge Margaret McGowan tried to force him to settle his divorce case because one of the people his wife was having an extramarital affair with is a prominent Queens real estate lawyer who she’s trying to protect.
The lawyer, Richard Lovell, started having an affair with his wife around 2017, the Queens man, Dimitri Bourianov, a Ukrainian immigrant alleges. Lovell and his wife had sex in his apartment in the living room and kitchen while their young children were at home in their bedroom. Lovell and Bourianov’s wife also exchanged sexually explicit e-mail messages and pornographic photographs, using devices that the children possibly had access to, Bourianov has alleged.
Bourianov filed for divorce from his wife in 2018. The couple married in Russia in 2010.
Bourianov alleges that even as she carried out the extramarital sex with Lovell, his wife was also having an affair with two other men. One was a neighbor named Michael Rogers, who lived on the same floor in their Forest Hills, Queens, apartment complex. The other was the super of a Manhattan apartment where the Bourianov’s first lived when they moved to New York in 2015. Bourianov has alleged, and e-mail messages exchanged between his wife and Lovell show, that on some occasions she’d leave the children with Rogers so she could have sex with Lovell. His wife also left the children alone—at that time ages three and six 6—in the apartment several times while having sex in Rogers’ apartment, Bourianov alleged.
Bourianov said Rogers lived with his girlfriend and two children in their building. Apparently, each of Bourianov’s wife’s three lovers didn’t know about the other. All of them have been called to testify.
Bourianov is a retail performance manager with an Italian jeweler, and the the lovers were with his wife while he was at work or traveling. He alleges that even though the evidence shows his wife neglected their children to pursue her sexual relations—and jeopardized their welfare by having sex with Lovell in their apartment while the children were present or leaving them alone multiple times—he still had to resist numerous attempts by Judge McGowan to force him into a 50/50 custody settlement with his wife because she wanted to protect the lawyer. He claims the judge said he would order him to pay his wife’s legal bills if the case went to trial. The couple’s children are aged nine and six now.
Dimitri Bourianov.
Bourianov’s trial started on Sept. 22 before Judge McGowan.
Prior to the trial’s commencement, Bourianov, in a letter to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct complained about alleged pressure from Judge McGowan and he repeated his allegations that she was protecting Lovell.
In an interview with Black Star News, Bourianov claims Judge McGowan made light of his wife’s multiple sexual escapades and the possible risk of exposure of the encounters to the children. He claims that in one hearing involving lawyers from both sides—but not the couple—Judge McGowan said, referring to his wife, “So, she likes sex.” The implication was that the affairs had no impact on the children, Bourianov said.
“My custody position is based on wife’s inability to make sound judgment decisions, including leaving children alone multiple times in the apartment while she was having sexual relationships with her paramours outside, exposing our children to paramours, having sexual acts with her paramours in our apartment while children present, exchanging pornography images with her paramours on the devices accessible to children…” Bourianov wrote, in his letter to the Commission.
In his letter to the Commission, Bourianov also claimed that his wife’s lover Lovell, the lawyer, was seen entering Judge McGowan’s chambers on September 10, 2019. He said when his previous lawyer raised the matter asked McGowan to recuse herself, the judge “dismissed it as unrelated legal business matter.”
(Several individuals whose cases have been covered by Black Star News have also filed complaints with the Commission on Judicial Conduct, alleging blatant bias by Judge McGowan. Two of the most egregious cases are those of a physician named Robby Mahadeo, who filed for divorce from his wife; and, in a separate unrelated case, Dr. Siranush Cholakian whose husband, an immigration judge named Frederic Leeds, sued for divorce. McGowan recused herself from these cases after a series of articles by Black Star News. Mahadeo’s case, and Cholakian’s are now both before William Viscovich, also in Queens State Supreme. Separately, after a defendant named Sean Jelen sued Viscovich in a case he presided over, Viscovich recused himself on April 5, 2019. The suit was subsequently dismissed on July 3, 2019, as academic. Jelen vs. Jelen is now before McGowan. The two judges are close. Lucian Chalfen, the spokesperson for the New York Unified Courts system didn’t respond to questions from Black Star News about the apparent conflict of interest and how cases are assigned to judges).
Asked for comment about Bourianov’s allegations and whether Judge McGowan could comment, a spokesperson for the Courts, Chalfen, in an e-mail message said: “As this is a pending matter, any comment, especially from the Judge, would be inappropriate.”
When Bourianov’s trial opened Sept. 22, Judge McGowan barred this reporter from attending the morning session when one of the lovers, Alvaro Rodriguez, took the stand. In the afternoon, this reporter was allowed to cover the trial—McGowan said she had erred in the morning, believing that covid-19 protocols barred media from the courtrooms without pre-clearance.
Rodriguez reportedly confirmed his affair with Bourianov’s wife. Rodriguez, who is reportedly married and lived with his wife and son, reportedly said he would have sex with Bourianov’s wife in their apartment while the children were in the bedroom. Rodriguez was their building’s super and occasionally they had sex in his apartment. When reached by phone Rodriguez declined to comment.
On the second day of the trial, Sept. 23, Judge McGowan denied Bourianov’s attempt to introduce into evidence the sexually explicit e-mail messages and photographs exchanged between his wife and Lovell. McGowan ruled that the evidence was inadmissible because Bourianov’s previous lawyers, including the last one Jenna Silverman, hadn’t turned over copies of the material to John Gemelli, his wife’s attorney, during discovery.
“I believe I said the discovery demands did not specifically request emails. She disagreed,” Bourianov’s current lawyer, Sari Friedman said, in an e-mail message describing her courtroom exchange with Judge McGowan. “Since then Mr. Bourianov gave me a motion previously made by prior counsel containing many of these emails and I will try again therefore to put them into evidence and hopefully will.”
Dr. Nicole Berman, a psychologist who met with the couple, was called as a witness by Bourianov. She testified that Bourianov’s wife told her that she was so concerned when one of the children, on one occasion, nearly walked into the living room while she was having sex with Lovell that she decided that from then on she wouldn’t do it in their apartment.
The first lawyer Bourianov had retained resided on Staten Island and that’s where he’d initially sued for divorce, in Richmond county. In court papers filed there on Sept. 26, 2018, Bourianov alleged, “Defendant and Mr. Lovell have had sex in the marital residence in various places, including, but not limited to our marital bed, the kitchen counter and our couch. Defendant even joked about Mr. Lovell’s sperm stain on our couch which her friend was touching. It is unknown whether or not our children have witnessed Defendant’s sexual escapades with Mr. Lovell. However it is extremely unsettling to learn that Defendant has had sex with a man in the marital residence while our children were home.” He added: “We live in a one bedroom apartment with no doors to the kitchen area. Defendant’s bad judgment has put our children’s safety and well-being at risk.”
“Defendant’s lack of judgment is frightening,” the court papers read.
Several of the salacious e-mail messages exchanged between Bourianov’s wife and Lovell were included as exhibits in the court papers. The following ones are the least salacious.
One message from Lovell, who is 68, to Bourianov’s wife, dated June 22, 2017, read, “My sweetheart. I love talking to you on the phone. Not as much as I like f—ing you but almost as much. I love f—ing you so much. I never liked f—ing as much as I do now. What is funny is that I stopped you from finishing the blow job so I could come inside of you. I would never have done that with anyone before you. Before you, a blow job was all I ever wanted. With you that had all changed. Don’t misunderstand, I love getting my c—k sucked especially by YOU. But I love f—ing you and coming inside of you.”
Bourianov’s wife, who is 39, in one of her own messages to Lovell, dated June 26, 2018 wrote, in part, “…I want to see you tomorrow. Can you drive to me in the morning please? I will try to leave kids with my neighbors or just I’ll give them cartoons. I miss you and I need to see you.”
Richard Lovell.
In an e-mail message to Lovell dated June 20, 2017, Bourianov’s wife complained that “I struggle with my anger” because she wouldn’t be able to see him that day because one of the children was sick. On June 22, 2017, she invited Lovell over saying she would give her daughter “headphones” so she could watch cartoons in the bedroom.
On Jan. 6, 2018, records show, Lovell sent Bourianov’s wife a photograph showing the exposed tip of his penis.
Bourianov alleges that his wife’s neglect of their children in pursuit of the multiple affairs put their children at risk. He wants primary custody with regular visitations for his wife and overnights on alternate weekends. Bourianov’s wife moved from the marital home in August, 2020.
Gemelli, the lawyer for Bourianov’s wife, didn’t respond to an e-mail message from Black Star News seeking comment.
Steven P. Forbes, the attorney appointed by the court to represent the interest of the children, also didn’t respond to an e-mail message seeking comment.
Pete Menoudakos, a lawyer representing Lovell, declined to comment. Lovell himself didn’t respond to an e-mail message with questions and a phone message left at his office.
Rogers didn’t respond to an e-mail message from Black Star News.
The Bourianovs trial has been adjourned until Oct. 20.
