Total Divorce Blog

A New York pastor and his wife are divorcing, and she wants the church. Well, not exactly. But, according to newsday.com, the wife believes that the church should be treated as an asset in their divorce.

Apparently, the couple poured more than $50,000 of their own money into starting the church, and the pastor/husband ran the operation like a business. The wife claims he spent congregation donations according to his whims and ran a catering service out of the church building.

Her divorce lawyer says that the church is no different from any other business venture, but the pastor insists he is merely a church employee, and has no right of ownership to the church.

A judge has agreed to hear arguments in the case, which could be the first divorce case ever in which a religious institution was cited as an asset in a divorce.

Oops … The state of Arkansas enacted a new marriage law this past July that allows children of any age, even toddlers, to marry. The law was intended to set 18 as the minimum age to marry while allowing pregnant minors to marry with parental consent. The Associated Press reports that an extraneous “not”, in the law, messed up the law.

An Arkansas judge recently upheld the mistaken law, ruling that the Arkansas Code Revision Commission could not correct the error. The Commission has authority to correct typos and technical errors, but Judge Tom J. Keith said the Commission had overstepped its bounds because correcting the error would have changed the meaning of the law. Only the state legislature has the power to make a meaningful change to a law.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel suggested court clerk’s follow the judge’s order. I wonder where you can find baby sized wedding rings? And …. How do you divvy up the pacifiers when they divorce?

A South Dayton, New York woman married her third husband without lawfully divorcingher second spouse. Keri A. Woltz has been charged with bigamy and unlawfully procuring a marriage license. In New York, bigamy is punishable by up to four years in prison.

Detective Nathan Root of the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office, told The Buffalo News that he got the case after Woltz’s “present” husband filed a report on a tip he was given. To Which husband Root is referring, is not clear.

Woltz, who is using the surname of her second husband, said she assumed he had filed for divorce and she simply never checked the paperwork.

You’ve never been anywhere near that women’s house? E-ZPass records can show that you took the exit to her place. Caught ya.

Several states use the E-ZPass system to speed toll collections. An electronic device mounted on the car’s windshield, automatically deducts the amount of a toll from the user’s account when the driver passes by a sensor, even at 70 miles per hour. Each state maintains a record of where and how much toll was deducted. In a Chicago Tribune article, Davy Levy, a Chicago divorce lawyer, said electronic toll records from I-Pass (Illinois’ E-ZPass system) are useful in catching a spouse in a lie. Although many states do not officially take adultery into account in determining the financial arrangements in a divorce, adultery can ruin a party’s credibility in court.

Bob Barr, former Republican U.S. congressman turned Libertarian and privacy rights activist, said people who want to protect their privacy shouldn’t use electronic toll systems.

In most states, when you file for divorce your personal information and financial declarations become public record unless the documents are sealed.

That would seem to be a pretty good reason to ask a judge to seal your paperwork; however, family court judges do not routinely seal divorce documents unless good arguments showing cause are presented.  In other words, unless there’s an extremely good reason, you might as well forget it.  Furthermore, even if there is a good reason, in most cases the documents will not be sealed.

A law was passed in California in 2005 to seal divorce documents containing certain financial information but was quickly invalidated in courts because it was found to have violated the First Amendment.

So, it’s all about public record and First Amendment rights.  That is how tabloids and news outlets regularly get their hands on the income and expense statements as well as the divorce filings of celebrities.

The State of Wisconsin may give pets custody-like rights when their ‘parents’ divorce. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that under a Wisconsin bill, pets would be included in a couple’s divorce decree. Soon to be ex-couples could specify, among other things, visitation rights and the right to move a pet out of state. If a couple cannot agree, the bill would give a judge Solomon-like power to choose one spouse or ship the pet off the local animal shelter. The Chronicle suggested whichever spouse got to the shelter first would then own the dog. A stranger could even adopt the pet before either spouse got there.

The bill’s lead author, Republican Representative Sheryl Albers said she is spearheading the bill because of her own messy divorce. She and her husband fought bitterly over who would get Sammi. The kids wanted the aged Labrador who suffered from incontinence. Neither spouse wanted the dog full time, though. Albers said the judge ordered that Sammi would follow the children. Whoever was caring for the kids, got the dog too. Unfortunately, Sammi did not travel well; “It was a relief” when the dog finally died.

Normally, states consider pets to be property. The Chronicle believes this bill to give pets rights, similar to children, to be the first of its kind in the nation.

In California you very rarely hear of a divorce for any other reason than “irreconcilable differences”.  Did you ever wonder why?

California is a no-fault divorce state.  Many states now have no-fault divorce laws which enable the parties to not engage in a battle over who caused the divorce.  In many cases this makes the process a lot quicker and much cheaper as well.  Neither party has to dig dirt on the other to prove anything.  They simply agree that they want to end the marriage, get a divorce and then they can fight over other things such as property division, child custody and support.

New York is the only state which still in all cases requires someone to be at fault in order to grant a quick divorce.  This means costs such as private investigator and hourly attorney’s fees can really add up.  If neither party in a marriage can provide proof of fault such as adultery or abuse then the parties must first agree to a legal separation and then live apart for a year before the divorce can be granted. 

These stringent divorce laws often lead to the parties agreeing in private that one of them will take the blame, just so the divorce can be done quickly.

There has been legislation in New York to enable a quicker, no-fault divorce process, but it did not make it through the state senate to become law.

East St. Louis Man Agrees to Second Divorce before Federal Sentencing

After his second wife filed for divorce on Monday, Metro East attorney Gary Peel did not have any objections and is now divorced. So what’s the big deal here? The Belleville News-Democrat reports details in Peel’s previous divorce that are quite interesting to say the least! Peel is facing federal prosecution for blackmail. It turns out that Peel originally did not want to meet the financial demands of his first wife Deborah Peel during their divorce in 2003. So what did Gary Peel do at the time? He attempted to blackmail his wife’s sister with naked pictures of her to pressure Deborah into backing off on her financial requests. If you’re wondering where Peel got the pictures, he had an affair with his wife’s sister in 1974 when she was a teenager. Peel is currently in jail without bond and awaiting sentencing this August for his convictions on possessing child pornography, obstructing justice and bankruptcy fraud.

Gary Peel’s second wife, Deborah Pontius, filed for divorce on Monday and a judge obliged with her request. Gary Peel then granted his second wife all of his stocks, stock options and personal property, which included the couple’s $375,000 home.

In honor of Father’s Day, Maxim has released a list of the worst celebrity dads.   It’s no surprise that Alex Baldwin makes the list, with his recorded rant against his pre-teen daughter fresh in our minds, but the father’s of some celebrity mess-ups made the list, too.  Dads of both Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan made the list, no doubt due in part to the recent DUIs their girls have garnered.

The Times Picayune is seeking to open the divorce records of a prominent councilman and his ex-wife based on the argument that a district court is violating both the Louisiana and the United States Constitution by keeping those records sealed. Of the 209 items pertaining to the divorce of Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young and former TV personality Mary Lou McCall, 195 of them currently can not be viewed. After being elected to the Parish Council in 2004, Young filed for divorce from his wife and sought that the records be sealed. The Louisiana Supreme Court will only let records be sealed on request when the right of privacy is greater than the public’s right to know and the only information to be sealed is so “sufficiently private” that it outweighs public disclosure. The Times Picayune has contested this second point in relation to this case and has claimed that the 24 District Court in Gentra is legally wrong to seal the records.

The newspaper request comes in the midst of a scandal surrounding Young’s new relationship with state Senator Julie Quinn. McCall has accused Quinn of slapping her eight year-old son that she had with Young. Quinn has denied the charge.