Total Divorce Blog

Months ago, Total Divorce detailed the criminal case of Darren Mack, a Reno businessman who was accused of murdering his wife and then shooting the judge that presided over his bitter divorce case, and here’s the latest information on this case which drew national headlines and was featured on CBS’ 48 Hours. Yesterday afternoon, Mack pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and also entered an Alford plea to an attempted murder charge. By doing so, Mack basically acknowledged that there was enough evidence for a conviction on this attempted murder charge without having to plead guilty to it.

During his 2005 divorce with his wife Charla, Darren Mack apparently felt that Chuck Weller, the divorce judge presiding over his case, was treating his wife more favorably. On June 12th of that year, Mack stabbed his wife to death and then fired shots into the judge’s chambers in which Weller was located. Weller was hit with shrapnel but survived. Mack later turned himself in to police in Mexico a week later.

In Texas a divorced couple are headed to the state’s Supreme Court to settle a fight about what happens to three frozen embryos that the couple created before the divorce.

Years ago, Augusta and Randy Roman consulted with fertility specialists and created three embryos, in hopes that they would become parents.  After the embryos were created, Randy had a very sudden change of heart and decided he wasn’t sure about the marriage, and was less sure that they should go forward with a potential pregnancy.

The Romans divorced and a long legal battle began about what would happen to the now frozen embryos.  Randy says that he has moral objections to them being used and wants them destroyed.  Augusta, 46, wants to become pregnant using the embryos and says they may be her last chance at having a biological child.

Augusta has previously won a ruling that would allow her to use the embryos, but Randy quickly appealed and the Texas Court of Appeals blocked her from having the embryos implanted.  Augusta has appealed and now the case is headed to the Texas Supreme Court.

Yesterday Commissioner Scott Gordon released his ruling on the pending custody matter between Britney Spears and Kevin Federline.

Spears had wanted to resume the original 50/50 custody split and have the two children come back to live with her.  Federline was reportedly fighting for a 70/30  custody split with the children in his primary care.

Commissioner Gordon reviewed the report that was submitted by the parenting coach in making his decision.  The coach reportedly had less than glowing remarks about Spears’ interaction with the children and said that she lacks focus.  The report did note that the coach didn’t notice any signs of the traditional types of abuse going on in Spears’ home.  The coach had visited Spears’ home on three occasions.

Taking all things into consideration, Gordon decided that it would be best for the children to reside with Federline for now.

Spears was ordered to child proof her pool area by Friday.  Also according to the order she will be allowed three monitored visits with the children each week.  That will include two daytime visits and one overnight.

The custody battle between Spears and Federline is scheduled to resume in April.  While their divorce is final, it seems that the custody dispute may never really be resolved

There may just be a trade show for everything now.

In Vienna, Austria the world’s first “divorce fair” was held and journalists, divorce lawyers, detectives and mediators showed up.  A lab was even set up to swab cheeks for paternity tests.  But where were all of the people who want to divorce?

As it was, the unhappy couples had better things to do and the event was a flop.

Only a few dozen people turned out at the divorce fair.  Some say that there were too many cameras there, and that’s what kept people away.  True, there were more journalists than unhappy couples there.

So the lawyers had few to counsel, there were no cheeks to swab and no disputes to work through.  Even the speed dating tables set up nearby were empty, as were the makeup chairs offered to women who would want to start their new lives with a new look.

Maybe divorce is just more of a private matter than the divorce fair organizers had thought.  After all, not everyone likes to air their dirty laundry out in public.

For some people, making light of a divorce can ease the pain and start the healing process.

So should the companies that print wedding announcements branch out and also offer printing of divorce announcements?  And should newspapers add a column beside their wedding announcements to announce the bitter breakups of those who wish to go public with the news?

Sending out or publishing divorce announcements could head off those uncomfortable moments when someone who hasn’t heard the news asks, “So how is Steve doing?”  You could be saved the wrinkle causing grimaces and finally just admit that your family and friends were right all along with an announcement to put it all out there.

You could also use your divorce announcement to either ask for advice on a divorce attorney or scare the pants off your ex by including the news in the announcement that you’ve already hired the most powerful and ruthless divorce attorney that has ever set foot inside a courtroom.

In more amicable circumstances, you and your ex could release a joint announcement that puts you both “back on the market.”  These could be sent to all the people that you would have liked to have dated, had you not made the mistake of marrying the wrong person.

So, for all kinds of reasons, divorce announcements could actually be a coming trend.  If faced with a divorce, would you make an announcement about it?

In Connecticut, a woman has been charged with second-degree harassment and breach of peace after she allegedly used the internet to try to  break up the marriage of an old boyfriend and cause the couple to divorce.

Pilar Stofega is accused of creating fake profiles of her ex-boyfriend’s wife on adult web sites across the internet.  She allegedly used the wife’s high school yearbook picture and her home and work telephone numbers in the profiles.

When strange men started calling the couple’s home and saying they were responding to a profile on an adult site, the couple knew something strange was going on somewhere.  The man did his own investigation and traced the profiles back to Stofega, who he had dated in 1999.

When Stofega was caught she said she set up the profiles to be vindictive, knowing that the profiles would cause problems between the husband and wife.  She was arrested and released on $2,500 bond.

A man in Spokane, Washington wanted to avoid a divorce so he decided that murdering his wife would be a better choice.  With Halloween coming up, it was just the right time to put his cunning plan into action.

Sean Jennings reportedly set up a haunted house in his garage and invited his wife to come have a look at it.  He then allegedly had her climb a ladder to test a noose where a skeleton was supposed to hang.  Mrs. Naive put her neck in the noose and then her husband pulled the ladder out from under her, according to police reports.

The woman still has bruises and rope burns on her neck from the incident.  She says that at the last moment she was able to get out of the noose by promising her husband that she would give him a divorce and that she would not tell anyone that he tried to kill her.

She kept her promise not to tell until she called police from a Wal-Mart parking lot on October 9.

As soon as the final paperwork is filed the divorce between actress Kate Hudson and musician Chris Robinson will be officially final.

Hudson and Robinson have both signed the final divorce paperwork and it has been submitted to the court for final approval and processing.  The famous pair were married for about six years.

Robinson was the plaintiff in the case.  He filed for a divorce from Hudson last November amidst rumors that she was involved with Owen Wilson.

No nasty custody battle here.  The pair have agreed to share custody of their son, Ryder, who is almost four years old.  There will also be no fighting over money.  The couple had a pre-nuptial agreement and Robinson did not seek any spousal support payments.

As far as celebrity divorces go, this one was fairly uneventful.

Jermaine Jackson and his ex-wife Alejandra were in family court today to settle matters of child support and custody of their children.

Things didn’t go so well for Jermaine. The judge ordered him to begin paying child and spousal support and refused to give him the 50/50 custody arrangement he had wanted.

Jermaine reportedly only sees his sons, Jaffar and Jermajesty, on alternating weekends. Alejandra says that he is an unfit parent because he does no help them with homework, give them lunch money and forgets to pick them up from school. It seems that those would all be difficult and unnecessary tasks for every other weekend visitation though.

The judge did not grant Jermaine’s request for 50/50 custody, but instead ordered the pair to work on their custody arrangement through mediation.

Jermaine got another smack down in court when the judge ordered him to catch up on child and spousal support payments. He now must pay Alejandra $11,511 per month in support, retroactive to July 1.

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.