Processes
Verdict: Jens Lehmann should pay 420,000 euros
Former national goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been sentenced to a fine. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
After a bizarre neighborhood dispute and an incident with a chainsaw, ex-national goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has now been convicted. This brings one of the most bizarre trials of the year to an end.
The former national soccer goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been sentenced to a fine. The Starnberg district court imposed 210 daily rates of 2,000 euros each for damage to property, insults and attempted fraud – a total of 420,000 euros.
Lehmann presented himself “consistently as a victim of the justice system,” said judge Tanja Walter. He is “not a victim, he is a perpetrator” and has presented “outrageous stories” in his defense in court.
In the trial, which centered on a bizarre neighborhood dispute and an incident with a chainsaw, the public prosecutor’s office had demanded a suspended prison sentence of ten months – and a fine of 216,000 euros. “With a chainsaw in their hands, heroes become legends,” said public prosecutor Stefan Kreutzer – or they end up in court.
Charges of damage to property, insult, attempted fraud
Lehmann was charged with criminal damage, insults and attempted fraud. The public prosecutor accused the 54-year-old of breaking into his neighbor’s newly built garage with a chainsaw and sawing into a roof beam. The original charge of trespassing was dropped after the neighbor withdrew a corresponding criminal complaint.
Prosecutor Kreutzer emphasized that there is “no doubt” that the allegations against the 2006 World Cup hero are true. Lehmann wanted to “simply get one over on” his neighbor. He saw Lehmann as having a high level of criminal energy and accused him of “vigilante justice”.
Kreutzer also had no doubt that Lehmann did not want to pay the parking fees in a parking garage at the airport and therefore pretended to have something to do in the parking garage – and then drove bumper to bumper behind another car under the barrier. “That is highly behavioral,” said Kreutzer. “And that for a few hundred euros – given your financial circumstances.”
Gaps in memory
On the first day of the trial, Lehmann admitted that he had entered the garage with a chainsaw in his hand, but otherwise cited gaps in his memory and spoke of false suspicions and character assassination. “The only person who has behaved in a way that is damaging to his own reputation is the defendant himself,” said Judge Walter.
Lehmann’s lawyer Christoph Rücker said in his plea: “The public prosecutor’s office is shooting sparrows with cannons.” He accused the public prosecutor of revenge and inadmissible “moralizing.” Lehmann suffers from a celebrity penalty and the charges are “peanuts.” “This courtroom is not a moral authority that has to educate a former national player.” He demanded an acquittal on charges of damage to property and attempted fraud and a fine of 50 daily rates of less than 500 euros each for insulting police officers.