Man jailed 10 years on contempt...

[MYSONSDAD]

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/10157106.htm

Friday, Nov 12, 2004    

   Judge orders man jailed in divorce case to pay ex-wife $4.2 mil

*DAVID B. CARUSO*

*Associated Press*

*PHILADELPHIA - *The cost of freedom just got a little higher for a man
jailed nearly a decade for failing to obey a judge's order in a nasty
divorce battle.

Once a successful attorney in Philadelphia's tony Main Line suburbs, H.
Beatty Chadwick went to prison in 1995 when a judge ruled that he had
hidden his wealth in overseas bank accounts rather than allow it to fall
into the hands of his ex-wife.

Chadwick has insisted for years that the money was lost in a failed
investment, but a series of judges have found him in contempt of court,
and ordered him jailed until he returns the cash.

Now, a Delaware County judge has issued another tough opinion against
Chadwick, ruling that he owes his ex-wife $4.2 million.

The total includes a 50 percent share of the couple's marital assets,
plus $1.4 million in legal fees and some additional overdue alimony
payments. To enforce the Oct. 27 ruling, Judge Chad F. Kenney Sr.
ordered Chadwick to post a security deposit for the entire amount.

It's unclear, however, whether Chadwick will ever pay.

The jailed lawyer has already set a Pennsylvania record for the longest
time a person has been imprisoned on a civil contempt charge.

His attorney, Michael Malloy, said his client's once-substantial wealth
is all but gone, and that no additional time behind bars can force him
to produce money that doesn't exist.

"This money is like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It seems
like it should be there, but it isn't there," Malloy said. "We are the
Saddam Hussein of the marital world. What are you going to argue when
you don't find the money? That it's still good that we threw him in
jail, because the Main Line is safer without him?"

Earlier this year, the court appointed a former county judge as a
special investigator who will attempt to locate the missing assets. The
judge has been working with a team of forensic examiners, but has yet to
issue a report.

Attorneys for Chadwick's ex-wife, Barbara Jean Crowther Chadwick, said
they are hopeful they can find a way to register the judgment in
European countries where they believe the money is hidden, and get legal
authority to obtain secret bank records that might reveal if any of the
fortune remains.

"We have two teams of forensic accountants working on it, and we are
hopeful something will come of it," said lawyer Kevin C. McCullough.

In the meantime, Chadwick has been undergoing treatments in prison this
year for a recurrence of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a potentially fatal
cancer. He has petitioned to be released from jail because of his health.

"His doctor is basically of the opinion that he is on borrowed time,"
Malloy said. "Even murderers go out on an electronic bracelet sometimes,
and this guy can't get out? He can't get work release? He can't get a
Christmas furlough? We think he's been in jail long enough."


Chadwick
P.O.B. 23
Thornton, PA 19373