A recent story in the Cincinnati Enquirer
discussed the now infamous Ohio divorce case of Christo and Sharlene Lassiter.
The two were married back in 1986 and had 10 relatively happy years together.
Since then, the couple has spent 17 years bogged down in a never-ending divorce
battle, a process that has lasted nearly twice as long as the marriage itself.
How can this be you might be asking? It
turns out the two are both law professors and know enough about court procedure
and Ohio family law to drag a case out. Experts that were interviewed about the
case say that Cincinnati family law attorneys know the case by heart. Some
judges have come out against the couple, lambasting them for making a mockery
of the legal profession and arguing that the two ought to be ashamed of their
behavior.
Ohio family law experts who were
interviewed for the story almost all agreed that a typical divorce where there
were no children could be wrapped up in several months. A contentious case with
child custody and visitation issues might take up to a year. The Lassiters took
more than five years to sign their divorce papers and have since spent another
12 years arguing over various components of their divorce, filing at least 28
separate actions against one another during that time.
According to the Enquirer article, the
divorce file between the parties contains nearly 1,400 separate entries, more
than 1,000 more than a typical divorce file would have. Almost everything that
could go wrong in the divorce has gone wrong. The Lassiters have called the
police on one another multiple times and both parties have had and then lost
custody of their two children. Each believes the other is out for revenge and
the two have used the court system as a tool to exact this revenge for nearly
two decades.
Judges in the area have shown that they
are over the fight, appearing to show little sympathy for either party. Judges have
said, “both parties have behaved in an appalling manner.” In a Court of Appeals
case, one judge said that Mrs. Lassiter showed “unrelenting hostility” towards
her former husband and “flatly refused to obey court orders.” Another judge wrote
that because both parties are law professors they ought to know better than to
behave in a way that is not only harmful to their case, but also incredibly
damaging to their children. A judge from Cincinnati wrote that the State Bar
should admonish the pair and noted that it was frightening to imagine law
students learning from their horrible example.
Though a case as contentious and long
lasting as the Lassiter’s is thankfully rare, it serves as a good example of
the problems Ohio couples should strive to avoid. Try and keep hurt feelings
and vendettas out of your divorce. Making the matter about retribution only
costs everyone in the long run, especially your children, and does little to
help your case.
Source:
“Court
calls law profs' 17-year divorce fight 'appalling',” by Kimball Perry, Cincinnati.com.
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