Senior Husband of Almost Forty Years a Person of Interest in Brutal Murder of Just-Divorced Ex-Wife

Domestic violence can strike where least expected.

Senior New Jersey Husband and Wife divorce after thirty-seven years of marriage.

Husband allegedly threatens Wife’s divorce attorney.

A New Jersey restaurant owner reportedly has contemplated seeking a restraining order against Husband or pressing criminal charges against him for harassing customers.

Wife is found, murdered. She was stabbed eighty times.

Husband turns up in Washington state.

Husband is arrested for threatening the divorce lawyer and incarcerated in Washington pending extradition to New Jersey.

Law enforcement characterizes Husband as a “person of interest” in Wife’s murder.

Read more in this Denville [NJ] Daily Record article: Denville NJ murder: Different perspectives on Anthony Novellino and this Denville [NJ] Daily Record article: Morris County NJ tip led to Anthony Novellino’s arrest in Washington.

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Financial Planner Recommends Budgeting and Warns Against Major Purchases Right After Divorce

A financial planner strongly recommends creating a budget after divorce to facilitate wise decisionmaking about finances.

(Actually, a budget should really be created prior to settlement or trial, for the same reason.)

Perspective is helpful in making any major purchases or financial decisions.

Depending on a person’s individual circumstances, their immediate priority may be education, training or financing a business, in order to increase their ability to generate long-term income. In the short run, this may need to take precedence over other purchases or investments.

Further, it may be prudent to favor liquid investments over others for some time after divorce – maybe even an emergency cash reserve.

For many people, major purposes should be deferred or subordinated temporarily to the two above priorities after divorce.

Marital settlements or awards are only made once and investment mistakes may be difficult to recover from.

A financial planner may be helpful and appropriate in this process.

Read more in this Primedia iAfrica article: Start over after divorce.

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Emotional Recovery from Divorce May Take Some Help and Some Time

The final judgment is entered. The court case is over.

Next begins the aftermath of divorce. For some spouses, even spouses who initiated the divorce, this can be a very difficult time.

A lot of divorced spouses would benefit from some type of counseling and professional support to aid them in transitioning to their new life.

A couple of therapists in California have designed a therapeutic program specifically intended to take an ex-spouse through that emotional transition from grief to recovery and beyond.

They call it Divorce Detox.

They believe that proper treatment is necessary both to heal and to fully embrace and maximize the opportunity to start a fresh, new life.

Read more in this Earth Times press release: Emotional Cost of Divorce Skyrocketing Due to Lack of Treatment.

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State Must Prove Parent’s Unfitness, Despite Child Welfare Agency’s Interventions, in Order to Terminate Parental Rights

Rhode Island Father in prison.

Father’s Daughter is born.

Father moves multiple times for visitation or timesharing with Daughter.

Trial judge denies.

And, a matter of weeks to six months before Father’s release, terminates Father’s parental rights to Daughter on grounds of abandonment and serious detriment to Daughter.

At the trial, the only witness is Father himself.

No caseworkers on behalf of the child welfare agency.

No evidence about Father’s compliance or noncompliance with his case plan.

No testimony about what would be in Daughter’s best interests.

Father has completed drug treatment, anger management, domestic violence prevention and behavior therapy.

Father’s prison therapist recommends reunification of Father and Daughter.

Father appeals.

Rhode Island Supreme Court reverses, holding that the state’s child welfare agency has not met its burden of proof of Father’s unfitness as a parent.

Read more in this Providence [RI] Journal article: Family Court Judge Jeremiah criticized in R.I. Supreme Court ruling.

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Some Financial Steps to Consider Taking in Anticipation of Divorce

A financial writer offers some suggestions for pre-divorce actions that may help pave the way for a smoother post-divorce life.

  1. Open an Individual Savings Account and, If Possible, Accumulate a Nest Egg to Help You Through

  2. Open an Individual Credit Account and Establish Personal Credit, Even as You Take Stock of Your Marital Debts and Pay Off, Freeze, Refinance or Document Your Position on Them

  3. Consult Financial, Tax and Legal Professionals About Your Rights and Obligations

  4. Create a Realistic Personal Budget to Better Understand Your Post-Divorce Needs

  5. Update Personal Passwords and Access Codes for Everything from Financial Accounts, E-Mail and Social Networking Sites and Update Your Spouse’s Status / Access

Read more in this Second Act article: 5 Smart Divorce Money Moves.

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Different Parenting Styles May Clash Sharply After Divorce

After divorce, different approaches to parenting can create great conflict between parents.

Sometimes one parent is stricter and has more household rules.

And the other parent is more permissive, laidback and/or trusting than the other. And if that parent travels for business, that parent may leave teenaged children and their friends unsupervised, even overnight.

These parenting disputes can encourage children to manipulate one or both parents and spur them to exercise their rights, real or imagined, over which parent they spend time with.

They can also lead to wild parties and other incidents that result in property damage, risky and inappropriate behavior, and even injuries.

Ideally, parents will work together to provide children with consistency – and safety.

But things don’t always go that well in the post-divorce universe. Sometimes these disputes push parents back into court and into working with various professional coparenting facilitators.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal post: Joint Custody of Teens Plus Business Travel Can Equal Trouble

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Professional Psychological Evaluator for Courts Arrested on Charges of Falsifying His Credentials

An upstate New York mental health professional (Evaluator) has been arrested for allegedly falsifying his credentials … for the purpose of securing contracts with government agencies to perform court-ordered psychological evaluations.

Several charges were brought against him, some of them felonies.

The institutions reportedly granting some or all of his degrees were not legimate educational institutions, but rather pay-for-a-degree mills.

The Evaluator reportedly performed numerous court-ordered psychological evaluations over the years, which played decisive roles in child custody and timesharing rulings in family court cases, among other cases.

If the Evaluator is convicted, it could spur a significant amount of family court litigation in the communities he served.

Read more in this Glen Falls [NY] Post-Star article: Special prosecutor assigned in false credentials case and this West Palm Beach Examiner article: Doctor under contract to Saratoga Public Defenders Office arrested, alleged phony college degrees.

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Pepper Spraying His Way into a Visit with His Baby Backfires on Virginia Father

Virginia Father and Mother have sixteen month old Baby.

Father and Mother are no longer together.

Father is determined to see Baby right now.

Father and Mother argue about it on phone.

Father comes to Mother’s home.

Father aggressively enters Mother’s home.

Father sprays pepper spray into face of older man there.

Mother is affected by the pepper spray too.

Father takes Baby and leaves the home with him.

Police arrest Father and charge him with breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, child endangerment, child abuse, assault and battery, and domestic assault and battery.

Police return Baby, uninjured, to Mother.

It is unknown whether Father had court-ordered timesharing. And, if he did, how this incident will affect it.

Read more in this Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star article: Man charged in pepper spray incident.

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Religiously-Motivated Abstinence From Paid Work Does Not Excuse Non-Payment of Support

North Carolina Husband and Wife have two children.

Husband works as corrections officer.

Wife files for child custody, support and alimony.

Trial court orders Husband to pay $1,100 in monthly child and spousal support.

Husband quits his corrections officer job after entry of the support order. …

And joins a religious commune which forbids members from making money outside the commune.

Husband fails to pay court-ordered support.

Wife files for contempt.

Husband defends on the basis of religious freedom and inability to pay.

Trial court finds that Husband’s new religious beliefs are genuine. …

And holds Husband in contempt anyway.

Husband’s change of religious heart flies in the face of the court’s order.

Husband appeals.

Appellate court affirms and holds Husband to his court-ordered support payments.

Read more in this Courthouse News Service article: Faith Is ‘Irrelevant’ to Child Support, Court Says.

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Credit Card Company Advises Premarital Credit History Disclosures Before Tying the Knot

A credit card company representative suggests some frank financial philosophical exchanges before your wedding day. That’s better, of course.

But, if neither of you has filed for divorce yet, it’s still not too late. Money is at the root of many marriage breakups.

Money problems complicate many divorces. And drive up their cost. Aggravating the problem and extending it into post-divorce life.

Some candid conversation may shed light on a bad intended union, help repair a shaky marriage or make a divorce simpler and cheaper.

The expert’s suggestions for discussion:

  1. Accumulated debts
  2. Credit reports and scores
  3. Financial goals
  4. Financial chores

The candor and discussion shouldn’t stop after the wedding.

Read more in this Huffington Post article: Before “I Do,” Take These Financial Vows.

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