Divorcing a judge in Sin City.  An artist's account of social injustice and manipulating the courts

There’s so much foul play that happened in my case, I might need more than an attorney; maybe a committee to complete a full judicial review of this thing.   You should know: My husband was a judge in family law for many years, he is very well known (not always for the right reasons), and he’s attended many family law conferences in Reno over the years. I did a name search on a court case data base at the law library and saw he and the divorce judges name come up together, although to what capacity I have no idea. 

HERE ARE THE DETAILS OF THE CASE: 

We met in 2006 and married in 2013.  I lived in Memphis and he in Seattle. I moved in with him in 2016. We started having troubles in late 2020 as we were in cramped quarters because of covid., couldn’t go anywhere and his drinking was out of control. He threatened suicide over the phone, was verbally abusive and physically abusive one night while black out drunk.  I asked for a divorce in November of 2020 and again on January 1 2021.  He said to wait until the end of the pandemic.  January 12, I had a pulmonary embolism putting me in the hospital for a week,  I had to call 911, while he ignored me. Delays in getting help caused an Nstemi (heart attack).  I felt I needed to make a decision.  ‘While I recovered in the following months, we decided to sell our Seattle home and make a new start in Vegas. I researched and found a perfect house.  We didn’t have a downpayment so I sold my rental condos to pay for it, while he sold his house to a developer. 

In July, I started working on the house, and in September, he came down from Seattle.  Something was clearly wrong as he was inebriated from 7 am until 10 at night and he seemed unhappy about everything. It seemed like he might have had a closeted boyfriend on the side. But, he denied it. Change is hard.  I get that, so I wrote it all off to adjustments. One night in early October, after he drunkenly called me a worthless piece of shit and told me he was blocking all my phone numbers and  not to come home, he called in a missing persons report. This seemed to be intentional as text messages later revealed.  If I had abandoned the home he could take it.  He kept this missing persons report open for months (intentionally, it seems).  When I found out he denied it. 

  In December, we had guests and family over as the house looked great.  I had spent 60ish thousand painting, furnishing, decorating, remodeling, renovating, and Christmas was perfect.  A month later,  approximately January 26,  he called police around 1 am saying “my husband is beating me and kicking me all over my body—including my head” Sometimes people will file these types of restraining orders just to gain leverage.  It's an abuse of the court system.  But, it's exactly what he did to steal the house I had bought.  I woke up and tried to calm him.  He’d been drinking and taking ambien. But he was lucid and padded off down the stairs in his robe.  When I got to the landing overlooking the foyer, he was still talking to the operator, exclaiming “I AM in the bathroom.  He’s trying to kick in the door and get me!” Minutes later police arrived, looked at him and said, “Mr. Dirty, there are absolutely no signs that any of what you’re saying is true. “ and then they asked if he’d been drinking.  I showed police the ambient lozenges and the half empty gin, and they handed me a card with an event number and said “if you would like to get a restraining order, here is the number.    I did not,   Two days later he had filed for a restraining order against me saying that I needed counseling.  He said I would get a chance to respond to his request, but I did not. Papers were served requiring me to simply stay at least 5 feet from the main house of my property. 

SOME OF MY CONCERNS WITH THE CASE

1. A TRO is supposed to be temporary and generally scheduled 14 days or less..or up to 30 days.  Our first hearing was 35 days from the day he served papers and I had met the criteria outlined therein.  It was a virtual (bluejean) hearing.  Not one person had photo or video on.  And I never saw a judge.  All I heard was the opposing counsel (Mr. Willick) say to extend the order out another month and ban both parties from talking to one another. I didn’t think that his lawyer got to make all the decisions on these things. 

 

2. Attorneys are not supposed to file in multiple courts with a TRO

 The impetus for the phony police report I found out later was to kick me out of the house, but the judge for those hearings didn’t comply.  So, the opposing counsel ran around filing for exclusive control of the house with justice, district, county, city and any other court—insinuating that it was the recommendation of family court that I be removed. 

3. A TRO can be beaten if the event wasn’t true.  My husband takes medications that cause him to bruise easily… the experienced veteran domestic violence police did not see one single mark to indicate that anything had occurred.  It is unbelievable that I attended hearings for six months on an event that never happened. 

4.. My husband controlled the mailbox, stole/trashed mail, forced me to miss court dates, and I was kicked out of my house with only two days notice during a pandemic.  An attorney I talked to saw an order/request for sole ownership and use of my house filed. This was dated as though the petition was brought before the courts on a Saturday. Three days before they claimed it was valid, my  husband did not know his attorney had file this. Later that day he confirmed, saying he would extend it as it came down too fast.  But, then they kicked me out without medications, ID, technology, and refused to comply with the civil standby.  The TRO judge would not remove me from the house, but the lawyer petitioned every court to sign off on it as if the TRO judge HAD removed me. 

 

5., OUR PRENUPTIAL ISN’T valid in Washington State anymore, but the judge has decided to honor it. TWO days before our wedding, my husband jotted down a very informal/basic list of assets—whatever popped in our heads, and signed it so we could skip the formalities or headache of divorce if we split in the first six months or so.   He said he wouldn’t file it-and he didn’t , that he would never notarize it, and he said I didn’t need to get an attorney to help me review it since it was only temporary.  There were no witnesses, no notary, no copies, and there was never a thorough or itemized exchanged of financial information, stock holdings, taxes, or otherwise etc.  Other factors from the division of property I find.concerning.   There was a split of community property assets, but no evaluation of debt.  Instead of selling the house I paid 168k plus 60k to furnish, while he only paid about 10k,  he gets to sell it on his own in 2 months, and I am not granted any proceeds or increase in value.  Their math is completely wrong in figuring out the final total. 

OTHER ODD AND CONCERNING THINGS ABOUT THE CASE.   

1. A network was set up on our home computers.  All my files were transferred off, and my computers don’t work anymore. 

2. Software (possibly tracking, mapping) was uploaded to my vehicle almost every day since October.   My husband denies it, but I found a thumb drive with the data left in my car. 

3. My husband took out an HELOC (to pay his lawyers I assume) on my house.  I read where this was illegal. 

4. Real Estate documents have been filed in Washington, when apparently they were to be filed in Clark.County? What is being hidden here? 

5. Everyone contends that our property in Seattle is not closing until October 1 2022, but I have a copy of the contract that shows the date as 

December 31. 

6. I was unable to file my taxes, or even log into Turbo tax and I’m assuming my husband filed out taxes jointly against my will so he would save money on capital gains taxes. 

7. I was told he used a phony or altered police report to initiate the TRO.  (I was never charged with battery) 

8. I was threatened, lied to, intimidated, sent messages to try and entrap me into conversation, my cell phones stolen to access my iCloud, my email was accessed by third parties. My computers were networked causing privacy/date breaches, and They failed to comply with a civil standby.

 Here is what I want done. 

• Call for a full judicial review of both these cases.  Overall, I feel it has been a vile act of harassment.  
• Contest the TRO— I don’t want any domestic violence charges on my record for something that never happened, and I consider the way this was handled as harassment and defamation of character
• Prove that the Prenuptial isn’t valid so the court cannot honor it and will be forced to come up with an equitable division of assets, instead of ripping me off 140k. 
• We have been together for 18 years, and for me to walk away with more debt and a total of $92,000 from their settlement, while he walks away with 2.4 million and possession of the home I purchased is unbelievable. 

I realize this might cost a lot, so I would ask that first someone challenge the prenuptial and how it can be Honored. I will pay $5000 to any law student, law professor, lawyer or other judge who can make this happen in the next day or so. 

I’m filing harassment and sexual assault against Mr. Doerty in Seattle, and harassment through litigation against his attorney.  I have seen and heard a lot about courts and courtrooms over the years, but this case has really been a game and I have been the pawn. 

All my best 

Tom

615-474-6511