Family Law

Reports: Ex-Bulls Star Dennis Rodman Can’t Pay $800K Child-Support Bill, Could Face Jail Time

An attorney representing the third wife of Dennis Rodman says in court documents filed in California that the former Chicago Bulls basketball star is $800,000 behind on support for the two children he had with her and owes his ex another $50,000 or so. His lawyer, Linnea Willis, says in…

Mar 27, 2012 10:27 PM CDT

Talked Into Giving Up Gun by South Fla. Judge, Man Gets 2 Years

A distraught litigant who held a gun to his own head in a South Florida courthouse last year before a judge talked him into giving up the weapon has been sentenced to two years in jail. Marin Stroia, 60, was found guilty in February of armed trespass and reckless display…

Mar 27, 2012 6:30 PM CDT

Texas Lawyer Jailed After Courthouse Ruckus with Deputy; Accounts Differ re Who Was the Aggressor

A Texas attorney has been released from jail on $1,500 bond after being charged with a misdemeanor on accusations he instigated a ruckus with a Harris County sheriff’s deputy outside a courtroom. However, Gregory T. Josefsberg, 39, told the Houston Chronicle that it wasn’t he but the deputy who started…

Mar 21, 2012 6:47 PM CDT

Insurance Agent Gets Jail Time for Selling Annuity to Elderly Woman; He Denies Recognizing Dementia

Updated: A California insurance agent has been convicted of felony theft and sentenced to jail for selling an annuity with an early withdrawal penalty to an elderly woman, despite, prosecutors say, her apparent dementia. The agent, Glenn Neasham, was sentenced to 90 days in jail last month in a case…

Mar 20, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Breast-Feeding Woman Booted from Plane Wins Secret Delta Settlement, 2 Other Carriers to Pay $20K

A New Mexico woman who said she was ordered off a Delta Connections flight in Vermont in 2006 after she refused an offended flight attendant’s demand to cover herself with an airline blanket has settled her civil rights case over the incident. According to Emily Gillette, who is now 32,…

Mar 16, 2012 9:25 PM CDT

Gov’t Seeks Death Penalty for Grandma, Says She Urged Girl, 9, to Run for Hours

An Alabama prosecutor is seeking the death penalty in a murder case against a 46-year-old grandmother accused of forcing a 9-year-old girl, with the cooperation of the child’s stepmother, to run as punishment until she suffered a seizure and died. Joyce Garrard is facing a capital murder charge in the…

Mar 15, 2012 4:33 PM CDT

‘Rogue’ Lawyer Gets 30 Days in Jail After Tape Catches Him Helping Divorce Client Break into Home

A New Mexico divorce lawyer will have to spend 30 days in jail after security tape caught him helping a client break in to her spouse’s home. Alamogordo lawyer Raymond Van Arnam was sentenced after pleading guilty to four misdemeanors, including trespassing, criminal damage to property and larceny, according to…

Mar 15, 2012 3:57 PM CDT

When a Spy Divorces, Details of the Marriage Often Remain Sealed

The details of spy divorces are often cloaked in sealed court filings. The numbers are also a mystery, since the CIA does not keep track of how many of its employees divorce, the Washington Post reports. But one retired senior paramilitary officer tells the newspaper he was told in 2005…

Mar 15, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

More Couples Get Hitched by Clergy Ordained with a Mouse Click; Are Legal Challenges Ahead?

More couples are apparently getting hitched by friends and family members ordained online with a mouse click, a trend that is giving pause to at least one law professor. The New York Times digs up some statistics suggesting an increase in such officiants, though most states don’t keep track of…

Mar 13, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

‘Unscrupulous Procedural Tactics’ Result In 12-Month License Suspension for Ohio Divorce Lawyer

Saying that an Ohio divorce lawyer had engaged in “a course of conduct that was replete with dishonest, deceptive, and disrespectful acts” as a practitioner, the state supreme court today unanimously agreed that his law license should be suspended for 12 months. The court found that attorney Joseph G. Stafford,…

Mar 8, 2012 6:20 PM CST

Mom Ordered to Pay Child Support for Adopted Boy She Sent Back to Russia

An American woman who sent her adopted son back to Russia has been ordered to pay child support to the adoption agency, which plans to hold the money in trust for the child. Judge Lee Russell of Shelbyville, Tenn., entered a default judgment against Torry Hansen on Wednesday, according to…

Mar 8, 2012 3:51 PM CST

Ex-Marine Gets 15 Years for Attacking Wife During Hearing in Judge’s Chambers

A man who fractured his wife’s nose and broke her jaw during an attack last year in a Florida judge’s chambers was sentenced Friday to a maximum 15-year prison term after pleading no contest to an aggravated battery charge. Paul Henry Gonzalez Jr., 29, apologized profusely and sought, with his…

Mar 6, 2012 7:44 PM CST

Woman Jailed After Sending Texts Threatening Judge to Lawyer She Once Dated, Authorities Say

A 47-year-old woman has been arrested and jailed on a retaliation charge after allegedly sending texts to a lawyer she dated three years ago that threatened a judge who had ruled against her in a support case concerning her ex-husband. An affidavit filed in the case says that Julia Paz…

Mar 6, 2012 2:50 PM CST

Snared by Sneakiness: Divorce-Driven Deceit Derails Dads’ Defenses with ‘Dirty DUIs’

Many of us remember when popular prime-time potboiler Dallas ruled the airwaves and nasty J.R. Ewing—in efforts to get custody of his son—would set traps for his long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen, trying to “prove” she was an unfit parent. Now, suppose it was Sue Ellen with the bag of dirty…

Mar 1, 2012 6:30 AM CST

Pet Custody Cases Proliferate, Divorce Lawyers Say; One Shares Custody of Dudley Dachshund with Ex

Once upon a time, the family pet was simply considered property. And, even as attitudes towards an animal’s role in a household changed, it was easy for a judge in a matrimonial case to include custody of a pet along with custody of the child or children that it presumably…

Feb 29, 2012 12:17 AM CST