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Jail Becomes Home for Husband Stuck With Lifetime Alimony


               
2013 Aug 26, 2:08am   2,372 views  14 comments

by zzyzzx   follow (9)  

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-26/jail-becomes-home-for-husband-stuck-with-lifetime-alimony.html

The former Citadel Investment Group Inc. portfolio manager, who once earned $1 million a year, has been jailed for missing court-ordered payments at least eight times in the past two years as he coped with the end of his 17-year marriage.

The reason he ran afoul of the law was simple. He was out of work for most of that time, a victim of a weak economy, and he ran through his savings trying to pay his wife alimony and child support that totaled almost $100,000 a year.

β€œIt's a circle of hell there's just no way out of,” Schochet said. β€œI paid it as long as I could.”

Schochet and ex-spouses in similar changed circumstances say New Jersey's law unfairly imposes lifetime alimony on them. If they fail to make payments, like the $78,000 a year Schochet owes his ex-wife in alimony, they can be jailed for contempt of court regardless of whether they have a job or resources.

Relief may be on the way. In states such as New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida where divorce laws are based on century-old notions of what an ex-spouse deserves, laws are being proposed to limit alimony in recognition of wives' earning power and the changed economic circumstances husbands can face.

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1   Dan8267   @   2013 Aug 26, 4:15am  

To jail someone for not being able to earn over six figures to pay to someone else is a human rights violation plain and simple. All those responsible should go to jail for life for such a crime. The victim might as well expatriate given how bad things are for him.

This travesty of justice is exactly what is killing marriage in America. Only idiots blame gay marriage for the decline in heterosexual marriages. The family court system is to blame. Why doesn't the Defense of Marriage Act outlaw such injustice? Oh, because the Defense of Marriage Act has nothing to do with defending marriage and everything to do with subjugating a minority.

Furthermore, jailing this guy repeatedly is tyranny. Yes, tyranny can be accomplished through bureaucracy rather than a tyrant, and that does not make it any less of a crime against humanity. Where are all the militia folk? Shouldn't they be breaking this guy out of jail, pointing guns at the police and judges, and shouting "from my cold dead hands"? Clearly, the Second Amendment isn't doing jack diddly shit to protect this guy, or the multitude like him, from being falsely imprisoned.

2   zzyzzx   @   2013 Aug 26, 4:18am  

I would have stopped paying earlier, while I still had some money, and used it to relocate overseas. I think he is a moron for paying as long as he did.

3   lostand confused   @   2013 Aug 28, 6:35am  

This is just bizarre. How on earth can he pay what he does not have . How does it help society by throwing him in jail with murderers and rapists?

4   turtledove   @   2013 Aug 28, 8:38am  

lostand confused says

This is just bizarre. How on earth can he pay what he does not have .

Thank the Bradley Amendment for that one (1986).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Amendment

5   Heraclitusstudent   @   2013 Aug 28, 9:04am  

zzyzzx says

The former Citadel Investment Group Inc. portfolio manager, who once earned $1 million a year, has been jailed for missing court-ordered payments at least eight times in the past two years as he coped with the end of his 17-year marriage.

The start of this sentence was so promising.
Then the end made me feel sorry for him.

6   Shaman   @   2013 Aug 28, 9:28am  

I read this last night. Very sad how the justice system works in certain states. Why didn't he just leave that state? I don't get it. The long arm of the "state" law isn't really that long at all. I also think he could have stopped paying so much and moved elsewhere when he got laid off.
Supporting your kids is one thing. Supporting your ex wife another. Get a job woman!

That said, I think the real reason reform is now happening with these unjust laws is because they are impacting women in significant numbers. My sister was ordered to pay her ex husband alimony for a while ... That almost certainly went towards his ganja habit.

7   Bubbabeefcake   @   2013 Aug 28, 10:29am  

zzyzzx says

I would have stopped paying earlier, while I still had some money, and used it to relocate overseas. I think he is a moron for paying as long as he did.

He was waiting it out for the booming recovery that never was!

8   Heraclitusstudent   @   2013 Aug 28, 11:07am  

zzyzzx says

I would have stopped paying earlier, while I still had some money, and used it to relocate overseas.

There are probably ways to collect debts in most civilized countries, and so probably this as well.
Maybe he could take what he could carry, change his name and move to a third world country.

9   futuresmc   @   2013 Aug 28, 11:17am  

zzyzzx says

I would have stopped paying earlier, while I still had some money, and used it to relocate overseas. I think he is a moron for paying as long as he did.

The man has kids. It's quite possible that he thought he might be able to get another job and continue with the payments. Ditching the country would leave him severed from his kids for the rest of their childhoods. I believe he gambled out of love for his children and lost.

10   theoakman   @   2013 Aug 28, 11:36am  

Not sure about the alimony laws in the rest of the country but in NJ they are a joke. The guy next door to my parents got divorced. Wife got the McMansion and a hefty alimony payment (75k a year) plus child support for 4 kids. 3 months after he moved out, new boyfriend moves in and has been there for 4 years. There's no financial incentive for them to marry as they continue to bleed this guy dry.

There was another guy I knew that divorced about 40 years ago. He's 88 and still paying alimony. He's dead broke and his social security doesn't even cover the alimony. His son tried taking it to court for him and they put them through the ringer refusing to modify the obligations because they couldn't produce his tax return from 1971.

11   turtledove   @   2013 Aug 28, 1:10pm  

Quigley says

The long arm of the "state" law isn't really that long at all.

I'm not a lawyer, but I am almost certain....

Where the children reside determines which state laws apply. He can't expect protection simply by moving to another state. Moving wouldn't help him with alimony, either, as long as the ex-spouse stays in the state that the order was initially decreed. In other words, only if both parties move out of that state would another state's laws be applicable.

12   carrieon   @   2013 Aug 28, 2:05pm  

I'm from the ghetto, knocked up 14 women and haven't paid a dime for it. The key is to not work and let the community pay for it.

13   Ceffer   @   2013 Aug 28, 4:05pm  

I thought that the bailout included banksters' alimony payments and personal bad debts, even gambling, so that they could get back to the job of performing heroic and helpful deeds for our country and our economy.

14   Blurtman   @   2013 Aug 28, 4:09pm  

Husband = House bound.

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