A 17-year divorce is finally starting to catch the attention of what must be the excessively patient Ohio court system. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz has finally had enough and is now calling for both parties to be reprimanded for their actions in the ridiculously long-running saga.
According to a report in USA Today, Christo Lassiter and Sharlene Boltz are two law professors who first married in 1986 and then started to dissolve their marriage ten years later.
Lassiter is now 56. Boltz is 52. But they’re both apparently still acting like babies and using their knowledge of the legal system to prolong the endless divorce and post-divorce lawsuits against each other.
The epic 17-year divorce included 1,400 court filings. But it wasn’t just paperwork. At times, Boltz actually called the police to Lassiter’s workplace. And both parents have had and lost custody of their children, who are now 17 and 20.
Is it finally over? Nope. There’s another court hearing scheduled for September 6. Lassiter said that Boltz still owes him money.
There is a very long description of the 17-year divorce warfare at Cincinnat.com.
But it seems like somebody should have called time on this nonsense a long time ago.
Judge Ghiz may finally be losing patience with the two legal profs who should, after all, know better. The judge has now released this statement:
“[B]oth parties ought to be admonished by the State Bar of Ohio. Both are law professors and officers of the Court. Each has a duty to behave in a proper manner, particularly with regard to legal filings, and each has more than pushed the envelope with regard to abusing the court system. It is frightening to this Court that either is teaching current law students the boundaries and ethics of our profession…”
But will the judge’s opinion finally be enough to call a halt to the ridiculous 17-year divorce?
