Mayhem
Lenhardt’s family criticizes Boateng’s appearance in court
Professional footballer Jerome Boateng has to stand trial on charges of assaulting his ex-partner. Photo
© Matthias Balk/dpa
At the start of his Munich trial for assault, Jérôme Boateng also spoke for the first time about his deceased ex-girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt. Her family is now criticizing Boateng’s appearance.
The family of Jérôme Boateng’s ex-girlfriend who died in 2021 Kasia Lenhardt is critical of the football star’s appearance in court in Munich. “In my opinion, words that come from the heart do not need to be written down by lawyers and then awkwardly read from a piece of paper,” said Berlin media lawyer Markus Hennig in a statement on behalf of the Lenhardt family.
Former national soccer player Boateng is on trial in Munich for assault. Another former partner accuses him of physically attacking her. At the start of the trial last week, Boateng made a long statement in which he denied the allegations and also spoke about Kasia Lenhardt: “Out of respect for Kasia, and out of respect for her son and her family, I have not spoken publicly since her death,” he said. But what he no longer accepts without objection “are all the lies, half-truths and false suspicions that have been woven out of all this and the tragic death of Kasia Lenhardt.” The trial about an incident on a Caribbean vacation in 2018 is scheduled to continue this Friday. Boateng’s former partner and mother of his two children, who is appearing as a co-plaintiff in the proceedings, has also been called as a witness.
“When Mr. Boateng speaks of ‘respect for Kasia, her son and her family,’ as can be read in the press, one wonders” what he wanted to achieve with his interview from February 2021, Hennig told the German Press Agency. “It is precisely this that led to massive bullying and prejudice against Kasia Lenhardt.”
Around a week before Lenhardt’s death, Boateng had given a newspaper interview in which he had spoken about his relationship with her. The mother of Kasia Lenhardt, who was only 25 years old at the time of her death, sued Boateng for an injunction. The Berlin Regional Court then ruled that Boateng was prohibited from making any statements about his ex-partner; in total, the court case concerned six statements (case number: 27 O 339/21). The mother then lodged an appeal; the date for the appeal hearing before the Berlin Higher Regional Court was set for August 1, a judicial spokeswoman announced.
Lawyer: “Does not agree on behalf of the family”
In the interview, Boateng spoke, among other things, about disputes in his relationship with his ex-girlfriend. His statements distorted the image of her daughter’s life, argued the plaintiff. Boateng’s lawyer stated in the trial that the football player regretted the interview.
Lenhardt was a finalist in “Germany’s Next Top Model” in 2012 and later had a relationship with Boateng. Shortly before his interview was published, the couple had separated. On February 9, 2021, her family announced through a lawyer that Kasia was dead. The police in Berlin confirmed at the time that an operation had been carried out in which a lifeless person had been found. There were no signs of foul play, they said.
“If he speaks from the heart about respect, he should immediately end the legal proceedings with the family and commit himself not to repeat all the terrible and untrue allegations about Kasia Lenhardt,” said lawyer Hennig. “Boateng’s attempt to use Kasia Lenhardt to blind the public even after her death is hurting the family of the deceased again. As a lawyer and on behalf of the family, I do not agree with this.”