Call It A Comeback
Causing all sorts of consternation at the Illinois Leader, from the Trib in regards to Peter Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald also said his family was contemplating moving to Virginia, where they recently bought property.
“We wish Peter Fitzgerald well as he begins a new life in Virginia,” Gerwig said. “We’re thinking of sending the Virginia Republican party a bottle of aspirin. He’s their problem now.”
BOSTON – When Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news – web sites) dismissed calls that he make his divorce records public, he apparently didn’t know many of them already are.
In 1988 Kerry and his first wife, Julia Thorne, were granted a “no-fault” divorce after 18 years of marriage. They cited the generic grounds of “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage,” according to divorce records.
The only portion of the records that are sealed involve the couple’s financial information, including salary, assets and debts, which are impounded in all divorce cases, Assistant Norfolk Probate Registrar John Jenney said.
Kerry has denounced inquiries about whether his divorce records should be unsealed, a question that has been raised frequently since Illinois Republican candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of the U.S. Senate race last week. His unsealed divorce and child custody records revealed allegations that he tried to pressure his former wife, television actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, to have sex in public at clubs.
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said when Kerry said he wouldn’t make his divorce records public “he was probably thinking about the pieces that are sealed.”
After nearly six years of separation, Kerry and Thorne filed jointly for a divorce on June 24, 1988. Norfolk Probate Court Judge James Sweeney approved the divorce on July 25, 1988.
A separation agreement, which included custody and alimony arrangements, was presented to the judge, but it is not included in the public file. It is within the judge’s discretion to allow the attorneys in the case to hold them in their own files, which they did in this case.
According to Jenney, separation agreements do not contain the grounds for divorce but the nitty-gritty of the financial arrangement between the two parties.
On June 9, 1995, Kerry and Thorne submitted an application to impound “all pleadings and other papers filed with the Court” in connection with their divorce. Norfolk Probate Court Judge John Cronin denied the request the same day.
Massachusetts became a no-fault state in 1978, meaning that parties do not have to provide a reason for the divorce unless one side contests it.
Kerry and Thorne married on May 23, 1970. They had two daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa. Kerry married Teresa Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Sen. John Heinz, in May 1995.
So I looked in the wrong County. Oh well. It appears there is nothing to sue for with the separation agreement largely being an agreement and not the contested portions of divorce. Kinda takes the wind out of this deal doesn’t it.
Sort of about the Senate race, but really more about the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team, Peter Fitzgerald breaks out of his cocoon and speaks to the press and it does about as much harm in the short run as LaHood has been doing:
From the Leader:
In town for meetings on Wednesday afternoon, retiring U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald told Illinois Leader.com that he believes the U.S. Senate seat is ?almost certainly lost? and the immediate prospects for the party are ?grim.?
But the bombshell is, he’s going to take out Gidwitz. With the help of readers I listed some of the problems Gidwitz would have the other day, but even better is this tidbit:
Today, Fitzgerald and Congressman Jerry Weller (R-11), are holding a private meeting with Joliet area mayors over the slum conditions of Evergreen Terrace complex, a low-income housing complex owned by Gidwitz. Fitzgerald has been trying to get the complex razed for a couple of years, when local residents complained to him about their living conditions.
A slum lord is who the Combine faction is considering? LOL
Has been up for some time at the Illinois Leader.
One can argue against equal rights for gays and lesbians and not be bigoted. Judging from the recent stories and comment board postings over at the Leader, few there are capable of just sinking into plain bigotry.
The Leader has yet to correct Jill Stanek’s Column June 24th Column saying the files were sealed from the end of the divorce–which is not the case. There was a one year period where the files were not sealed.
Jeff Berkowitz graciously gives me a walk on the files sealing issue, though he still thinks it’s an open question. While it can be confusing, the key point is in Rick Pearson’s article which is consistent with other news outlets version of the timeline.
2000
June: Ryan requests that the court seal records of custody hearings that occurred after the couple’s divorce was finalized. The request is opposed by Jeri Ryan and rejected by the judge.
September: An attorney for Jeri Ryan says in a court filing that one of Ryan’s attorneys had told her a few months earlier that Ryan wanted parts of the divorce file blacked out, removed or sealed because he was “concerned [it] would negatively impact his political aspirations and embarrass him.”
2001
September: Ruling that portions of the Ryan divorce file, if revealed, could harm the couple’s young son, additional documents are sealed and all sealed documents are ordered removed for safekeeping in Ryan’s attorney’s office. Jeri Ryan supports the request, citing safety concerns after a man was convicted of stalking her.
The stalker was on Usenet in 2000 and his rantings are available here (warning strong adult content).
I have to say, they are making news. It’s hit the major outlets and is now in play. And Proft was on O’Reilly last night. Newsmax has picked it up.
I’m still confused about the reasoning, but I’m all for pursuing open records, even if the Leader isn’t always. I think this may become at least a couple days worth of stories in the national media.
😉 Obama gets better pictures than the Minority Leader on the Minority Leader’s own site!
Really guys, get Cross to grow the hair out–it makes him look much older.
They are also all over a race affected by the Hospital scandal–apparently a Dem House Member is in the middle of it. Sigh. OneMan should be picking this up. I am not familiar with Franks so I don’t have much more to say.
The Kerry Divorce Records are sealed.
Separately, Kerry told an interviewer he has “no intention” of releasing his divorce records, calling it “ancient history.”
“I have no intention of doing that at all. There’s no reason whatsoever. It’s history, ancient history,” Kerry said in an interview with Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo during a campaign stop in Phoenix. “My ex-wife and I are terrific friends, very proud of our children. We have stayed close as an extended family in a sense through those years.”
Kerry said his ex-wife, Julia Thorne, sees no reason to release the records, nor do their two children.
“It’s none of anybody’s business. Period,” he said.
Well, actually the records are the people’s business because they should be public records of a public process in the courts. Period.
Disclose People!
It still seems unlikely that the documents will have anything too interesting given it was a relatively amicable divorce.
As I’ve said about both Hull and Ryan–if you don’t disclose, it’ll take you off message. Now, in this case we don’t have any indication of material that might judge the fitness of the candidate, but it should be a public record. Period.
If you dump the documents out there, they will go nowhere in most cases. Hiding them will create a media circus. Everyone’s an adult so just release them.
The potential lawsuit to open Kerry’s records gets a brief mention in Dan Kennedy’s blog. Kennedy argues that because the parties are okay with the impoundment, the records should stay closed. That is a strange way to treat public documents. The reason we keep public documents open it to ensure the courts operate fairly and treat everyone the same. To privilege some documents is quite a strange outcome unless there is an overriding public policy interest such as protecting a minor child or encouraging adoption. Protecting a minor child doesn’t mean protecting them from embarrassment from his or her child, it means protecting the child’s conditions from being public. In the case of Kerry, the children are adults and so the interest in protecting them would be gone.
The best strategy is to offer up the files to the press. Given the divorce was relatively amicable, I can’t see it being that big of a deal. The annulment was not friendly, but the divorce itself was a mutual decision.
That said, we don’t know for sure that the files are sealed. No one has checked that I can tell. They may well be, I simply don’t know. If I’m right and it was filed in Middlesex, the office wouldn’t answer the question. I do know the divorce did not occur in Suffolk County (Boston). There is also a chance it could have taken place in New York.
Thanks to readers and others for the background and the link!
And still no correction to the assertion that the files were sealed from the time the divorce was finalized.
Jeff Berkowitz doesn’t appear to understand the issue here. The records were sealed one year after the divorce was finalized.
If you want a source on that, try the Illinois Leader.
What’s amusing about this is that Jack! apparently lied to Stanek from her comments on the Illinois Leader message boards.
Sorry, but I’m batting a thousand. McCulloch, well we don’t know exactly what he is batting. If you read his initial statement he said he got them from an associate of Jack!’s who copied them before the records were sealed. I’m unclear why Dan Proft’s claims limit how others might have viewed or gotten the files so I’m not sure why that is relevant. I haven’t heard Beyond the Beltway and it isn’t archived so I can say what McCulloch has said so far is far more accurate than what Jack! or Proft or Stanek have been claiming. Was everything perfectly accurate? Probably not, but I as I mentioned before he was working from memory.
Remember that also there were six paragraphs stricken at the last minute by the judge because they were particularly graphic.
I would suggest that if Ryan’s supporters are truly concerned about his kid and his reaction, they drop this silly blaming of others for Jack!’s screw-up before the mysterious file appears and does “more damage”.
UPDATE: If there is any question that something else is out there,
Read Chuck Goudie.
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