Fla. Millionaire Gets 180 Days for Contempt in Divorce Case for Permitting Vegas Wedding of Son, 16
A judge overseeing a Florida millionaire’s contentious divorce case has jailed millionaire Dan Rotta for 180 days for contempt because he gave permission for the couple’s troubled 16-year-old son to get married in Las Vegas rather than enrolling him in a Utah boarding school as the court had ordered.
Rotta, 65, was booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail after Circuit Judge John Schlesinger’s sentencing order on Tuesday. He was held in contempt after a May trial, reports the Miami Herald in an article reprinted in the Palm Beach Post.
“It is hard for this court to imagine a bolder, more egregious example of indirect criminal contempt,” wrote Schlesinger in his final order.
Nevada allows a 16-year-old to get married with one parent’s consent, according to the newspaper article.
Because the unnamed teen is married he is considered emancipated and no longer subject to the court’s supervision in the divorce case, the Herald reports. His wife is the 18-year-old daughter of the family’s longtime housekeeper. He is now living in his father’s penthouse in an exclusive enclave known as Fisher Island.
Attorney Neal Lewis represents the senior Rotta. He says his client is appealing the contempt sentence.
