Enlarge image
Jérôme Boateng in the district court of Munich
Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP
In retrospect, it sounds like a joke when Jérôme Boateng had his lawyer at the time announce that he didn't want to wash dirty laundry - and then did nothing else.
In court, he gave a disturbing insight into the relationship with his former partner, who had reported him for bodily harm.
A year later, the proceedings are now entering the second round: the same room, the same accusation, new defence, new court – and dirty laundry again.
Muscled bodyguards escort »Germany's footballer of the year 2016«, now a supplementary player at Olympique Lyon, into the hall.
The 1.92-meter athlete with gold-rimmed glasses wears an anthracite-colored suit, white shirt, wine-red tie, he towers over everyone.
laughter in the hall
In September 2021, the Munich district court sentenced Jérôme Boateng to a fine of 1.8 million euros for bodily harm: 60 daily rates of 30,000 euros each.
He would not have had a criminal record had the judgment become final.
But the professional and his ex-girlfriend and the public prosecutor appealed: Boateng's defense attorney had demanded an acquittal, the public prosecutor a suspended sentence of one and a half years and a monetary requirement of 1.5 million euros.
more on the subject
Personal injury process in Munich: Jérôme Boateng rejects the court's proposal
Judgment against ex-Bayern professional Boateng: dirty laundryJulia Jüttner reports from Munich
Inside insights into a toxic relationship with a tragic end: Why did Kasia Lenhardt want to die? By Nora Gantenbrink, Isabell Hulsen, Antje Windmann and Agnieszka Debska (translations)
The proceedings are now at the Munich Regional Court I and have ended up with the chairman Andreas Forstner, a jovial, conciliatory, apparently Bavarian man.
He opens the hearing with an unusual speech: If all parties are dissatisfied with the first-instance verdict, that is "a good sign".
The colleague who made the judgment at the time was very experienced.
"Someone who knows what he's doing," says Forstner.
Appeals against his judgments are rare, he is "own" but has "a certain intuition".
And then follows a pointed comment: "We have completely different candidates at the district court!" Laughter in the spectators' gallery.
Boateng's conscience
For almost an hour, those involved in the process finally withdraw for a legal discussion: the point is to withdraw the appeal and to negotiate the amount of the sentence again;
to do this, however, the accused must accept his conviction.
The chamber makes an offer that the prosecutor and also the ex-girlfriend's attorney would accept.
Now it's Jérôme Boateng's turn.
After consultation, one of his three lawyers said the 34-year-old soccer player was rejecting the offer.
It is not compatible "with his conscience and his attitude towards his children".
So not a short process.
Enlarge image
Jérôme Boateng with bodyguards on the way to court
Photo: Angelika Warmuth / dpa
Judge Forstner thus reads out the judgment of September 2021 and states what Jérôme Boateng is accused of exactly: After the German national team left the 2018 World Cup, he is said to be the mother of his two children, with whom he has had an on-off relationship for years , smacked and insulted while vacationing together in July on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.
Jérôme Boateng denies "criminal activity" and will "not comment on the matter," explains defense attorney Norman Gelbart and criticizes the "massive reporting" that not only reports on the escalating dispute in July 2018.
The allusion is also aimed at the suicide of Kasia Lenhardt, Boateng's ex-girlfriend.
The 25-year-old model was found dead on February 9, 2021 in an apartment in Berlin that Boateng is said to have rented for her.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating the suspicion of bodily harm in an alleged incident in 2019, Boateng had also denied this allegation.
Vacation with butler
One still hopes for a fair trial, says Gelbart.
Judge Forstner then calls the most important witness in this process into the room: Ms. S., from December 2007 to 2018 with Jérôme Boateng and the mother of his eleven-year-old twin daughters.
She tells what is said to have happened back then in the luxury resort with a private beach and butler in the Caribbean, where she spent the holidays with Boateng, their children, a friend and his daughter and a friend.
Accordingly, Boateng is said to have freaked out in the late evening of July 19, 2018 because of a trifle and canceled a card game together.
The girlfriend, Boateng and she would then have concentrated on their cell phones, says Ms. S. »We scrolled and poured through Instagram.
I ended up on the side of a woman with whom Mr. Boateng once had an affair.” She confronted him about it, whereupon he threw a glass lantern and later a cooler filled with soda cans and ice cubes at her.
Boateng called her a "whore, hooker, cunt", reproached her and put a thumb in her eye with full force.
"He grabbed my hair, tugged at it and bit my head." She fell to her knees and he punched her in the kidney.
"I already knew these attacks," she says in a calm voice.
In the scramble, she probably injured him with her Cartier bracelet, he bled and spat in her face.
The judge has photos of her injuries projected onto the wall.
Jérôme Boateng sits between his defenders, leaning back, unresponsive.
Born in Berlin, he has been earning his own money as a footballer since he was 16.
He does not want to give any information about his financial circumstances in court, just this much: he has no debts.
He played for FC Bayern for ten years, he was a two-time Champions League winner, eight-time German champion and five-time DFB Cup winner.
In 2014 he became world champion with the German national team in Brazil.
"There was always violence"
Judge Forstner wants to know why she only reported the attack three months later.
It was "a difficult decision," says Ms. S., until Boateng attacked her again weeks later.
Then she goes to the police.
The 33-year-old lives in Berlin and works there as a prison officer in the women's prison.
Their children live with Jérôme Boateng in France.
Since 2015, the former couple have been arguing about the girls' right of residence.
The defense sees this as the motive for the criminal complaint against Boateng.
For eight years, in a total of 18 proceedings, Ms. S. has been trying to get her daughters to live with her before the family court.
But the opposite is the case, exclaims lawyer Peter Zuriel: "Ms. S. is only allowed to see the children accompanied!" He has not (yet) explained why this is the case.
"There were always violent attacks, it was always an on-off relationship," says Ms. S. Boateng, who also "shoved" her in front of their daughters.
»The children rarely saw us together, but when they did, it wasn’t in a positive way.«
The defense wants to bring in information from the proceedings before the family court
You know the behavior of the professional kicker in escalating situations: First he throws objects, usually a cell phone, then follows the physical attack.
She reports several violent assaults for which she has sought treatment.
“Our relationship has always been toxic and turbulent,” says Ms. S. “What do you mean by a toxic relationship?” prosecutor Stefanie Eckert asks.
»Characterized by arguments, infidelity, violence, a lot of insecurity and few conversations – and when they are immature and manipulative.«
Jérôme Boateng has been unfaithful several times, says Ms S. During the relationship with her, the professional footballer fathered a third child with another woman, the boy is now six years old.
She knows about her children and their nanny that Boateng has also attacked other women, says Ms. S. She has not attacked him herself, only defended herself.
"I'm clearly physically inferior to Mr. Boateng."
The defense alleges that Ms. S. only cites the allegations of bodily harm in order to bring her children to Berlin.
She requests that files from the family court be consulted and introduced into this procedure.
This should bring more details from the intimate life of the former couple to the public.
And so it sounds like a joke again, what Boateng's new lawyer announces that day: "We don't intend to spill dirt on Ms. S."
The trial is scheduled to continue on Friday.
A verdict will certainly not be announced yet, says Judge Forstner at the end and asks all those involved in the process: "Perhaps one or the other will get inspiration overnight as to how we can still get the curve - without consulting umpteen files."
