A Soap Opera of a Divorce in Florida
When Bernice Heslop won the $28.5 million jackpot in the lottery she decided not to share the good news with her husband. After all, she and her husband, Ernest Moore, Jr., had been living apart for more than five years and she certainly didn’t want to share the money with him.
Now, more than 12 years later, the legal fight over the lottery money continues. You see, her not quite ex-husband did find out about the money and sued to have a share of it. And the person who informed him that Bernice had won the lottery wants his fair share too.
When Bernice realized she had won the jackpot, she tucked her ticket away and called a divorce lawyer. She wanted a quick divorce.
Moore agreed to some easy terms for the divorce. There were to be no child support or alimony payments and the two would simply go their separate ways.
On February 1, 1996 the divorce was finalized and the next day Bernice went to the lottery commission to claim her prize money. She didn’t pose for any photographs or give any press interviews and was in and out within minutes.
Moore remarried and had no idea his ex-wife had become a millionaire until someone approached him and told him they had overhead some financial information that pertained to him. The person who approached him, Marvel Rodriguez, wanted 35 percent of whatever Moore recovered as a result of the information and Moore agreed, signing a notarized contract.
Armed with his new information, Moore sued his ex-wife and in 2000 they settled out of court. Moore received $300,000 plus $57,000 per year for 15 years. The confidential agreement gave Moore the money tax free, as Bernice agreed to pay all of the taxes owed on the money.
Each year when Moore has received his $57,000 payment, he has paid Rodriguez his share of the money, $19,950, but Rodriguez always felt as if he has been shorted somehow.
This year, Rodriguez finally found out how much he had been shorted when in August, a judge ordered Moore to disclose the terms of his agreement with his ex-wife. Rodriguez found that he is still owed $175,000 from the initial $300,000 that Moore received and he also wants to be paid interest on the money and 35 percent of the taxes Bernice paid on the settlement.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
It’s crazy that people can still be so greedy (hiding funds from Rodriguez that Moore would not have had without Rodriguez) - even in situations like this - (where nothing was earned - and no work was involved to gain the $$).
Practically irrelevant side note: He should have been owed $105,000 (35% of 300,000) - not 175k.