His revenge was worth its weight in gold.I hate to say it, but this does not work. The judge will say that he does not believe the man's story, and hold him in jail until he produces the gold. He has no right to a trial, and could be held in jail for 10 years.
A Colorado man was so angry at his ex-wife for divorcing him that he had the couple’s life savings of $500,000 converted to gold — then tossed it in a dumpster so she couldn’t have any of it, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports.
In June, Earl Ray Jones, 52, of Divide, Colorado, was ordered by a judge to pay $3,000 a month to the woman he’d been married to for 25 years, so he pillaged the couple’s retirement account and had it converted into 22 pounds worth of gold and silver bars, the paper reports.
Jones claims he then tossed the modern-day treasure into a dumpster behind a motel, where he had been living temporarily, later telling the judge he had no money to give his ex-wife, according to the paper.
His wife’s lawyer called it one of the most bizarre things he’d ever seen.
“We say that when people are divorcing, they enter a state of temporary insanity,” quipped John-Paul Lyle. “But on a scale of 1 to 10, this is my 10.”
There are no witnesses to confirm the gold dumping and no lucky garbage men discovered the treasure, according to the Gazette.
“I didn’t have any drivers walking off the job with a smile in May,” garbage truck manager Rick DiPaiva said.
Jones said he first tried to withdraw the money from his bank in cash, but the request was denied.
“If that would have been an option, I would have been walking around giving people $100 bills,” he said in a sworn statement.
Jones is now in jail, doing time for assault for a separate case.
If he really wanted to destroy the money, he could have opened a futures (commodities) account and made a series of bad trades. Or taken it to Las Vegas and gamble it away. Then he would have witnesses, and could prove that he no longer had the money.
Update: Thanks to a comment for the link to http://gazette.com/teller-county-man-claims-he-dumped-gold-in-landfill-during-divorce-dispute/article/1508220 with more details.
I am not defending the man. He is either a fool or a liar. The wife may be at fault also. If she ends up destitute, it will be partially because she chose to file criminal charges against him, and divorce him.
2 comments:
Is there evidence that he is a dad?
Jones is facing a Nov. 4 sentencing in Teller County for menacing after he beat up his wife and held her captive in their Divide home during a March fight over finances. April Jones filed for divorce three weeks after the assault. Facing the loss of his government security clearance, Jones resigned his $82,000-a-year job at Exelis, a Colorado Springs contractor, court records show.
He has been held at the Teller County jail pending sentencing since his conviction at a September trial, court records show.
His estranged wife was left "destitute" by the marriage's breakup and is living with a relative in Virginia, Lyle said.
A former teacher, she is unable to work because of the lingering effects of her injuries, including a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome...
In the case of a pending divorce, however, a husband couldn't lawfully dispose of his wife's assets, and she may be legally entitled to claim her share should the missing assets be found, said Colorado Springs attorney Phil Dubois, who has no ties to the case.
That's if anyone believes the gold was actually thrown away, of course.
"Based on normal human conduct, one would believe that it's out there somewhere, and that he knows where it is," Dubois said.
Read more at http://gazette.com/teller-county-man-claims-he-dumped-gold-in-landfill-during-divorce-dispute/article/1508220
Ive dealt with disputes like this.
A lie detector is going to work for this sort of thing. And its a felony to take and hide or dispose of marital assets like this even if there is no court order.
that said, a pound of gold is worth ab about 20k so this is only 25 pounds of gold. so not that hard to hide. and basically impossible to find in a landfill.
But his assault and kidnapping charges are going to make him somebody's bitch in prison.
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