Duplicity - A True Story of Crime and Deceit by Paul Goldman (surface ebook reader txt) 📗

the judge tells toprepare the judgment is the “winning” lawyer. Adam was trying toconceal a smile as he picked up his pen.

Judge Andrews continued tospeak. “First of all, I’ll find that themarriage is irretrievably broken. The divorce isgranted.

“Mrs. Munson’s testimony is notcredible. She is willing to lie and misrepresent when it suits herpurpose, specifically admitting creating two dummy entities tocollect money from Mr. Goldman under false pretenses.

“Second, Mrs. Munson clearly liedin her application for Welfare.

“She had assets. She had anexpectation or at least hopes that she was going to get some assetsout of this case, and that’s not what she said in the application.So I don’t find her to be credible at all.

“I do find Mr. Goldman to becredible. I find him to be naïve and gullible.

“Mrs. Munson entered into themarriage, not for love, but for money. She was marrying Mr. Goldmanfor his money, and she was maintaining her boyfriend on the sidethe entire time, during their courtship, through the date of thewedding, the honeymoon and thereafter.

“Her cash income and cash depositsare suspicious. Whether she is a prostitute or not is irrelevant tothis case.

“So I’ll find also that Mr.Goldman will keep one hundred percent of all his homes. Mrs. Munsonadded nothing to the marriage nor brought anything to purchase ormaintain any home.

“The bank accounts. I didn’t findenough proof to show me that there was money in the accounts thatwas marital money, but even if there was, I will unequallydistribute that back to Mr. Goldman under the same theory that I’mgiving the houses back to him, that they were a hundred percentgenerated by him, and Mrs. Munson brought nothing to him under theequitable distribution theory.

“Mrs. Munson’s request forattorney’s fees. Each party will pay their own costs and attorney’sfees.

“All right. So you both will besingle as soon as I sign off on the judgment.”

The judge banged his gavel, rose, and left thecourt.

That was it. A complete victory. Two years of livingevery day with the fear that someone was trying to steal half ofeverything I owned, was finally over. Actually, half didn't beginto tell the story of what Audrey could have done to me. Had she wonhalf, that half could have been valued as of our divorce filingdate, eighteen months prior to the trial. This was before mybusiness failed and all its money was gone, and at a time whenhousing prices were thirty to fifty percent higher in Californiaand Florida. Therefore, this “half” amount would have not onlycompletely wiped me out, but also would have probably resulted in alegal judgment against me for hundreds of thousands of my futureearnings. What a disaster that would have been for my present andJohnny's future.

Judge Andrews’ ruling confirmed the truth nowapparent to everyone: the only thing that mattered to Audrey washer bank account. Audrey haughtily walked quietly out of thecourtroom, with a look of disgust on her face, clearly feeling thatthere had been an obvious miscarriage of justice. Adam slapped myback and shook my hand in congratulations. I was still in shockwhen the court reporter came over and congratulated me. He told methat in all his twenty years, in all the divorce trials he hadworked, he had never, ever, seen a judge give one spouse absolutelynothing. I just smiled, and kept thanking everyone over andover.

With a nudge from Adam, I stood up and walked out ofthe courthouse, feelings of relief and freedom washing over me.Audrey’s deception from the day we first met was now documented inthe public record. Her next victim’s lawyer could bring it all out.Of course, Audrey’s profitable business would continue until one ofthe many agencies I’d contacted finally made a move. I looked up atthe sky and made a silent wish that it might happen soon.

Arriving at our cars, I turned to Adam with my handextended and my tongue tied. I couldn’t find the words.

“Adam, I’m not sure I can everreally say… ”

“Paul, you’re welcome,” he saidwith a knowing grin. “Now, go celebrate.” I nodded in appreciationbefore getting into my car and beginning the flurry of phone callsto friends and family. Johnny, my parents, Bob Thompson, and all myfriends were instructed to meet me for a celebratorydinner.

All was now right with the universe.

* * *

Returning home later that evening, I looked back atan email I had written Audrey on August 2, 2009, one day afterreceiving her phone logs. I wrote:

More proof of your true character and what you werereally doing during our marriage’: your calls to Royce. Calling hima half hour before we were married, calling him that night, on ourwedding night, three calls around midnight, and many hundreds ofcalls during those few months we were together. What do you believethe judge will think about your true intentions towards me afterseeing the list of these calls? And then, FLHC, Cocoa Beach,demanding my assets, and all your other lies and deceits, do youreally believe he will financially break me just to reward you?

Thankfully, it had all come true, everything I hadpredicted to Audrey almost a year earlier. I continued to wonderwhy she would put me through a year of agony, instead of walkingaway then. At that point, I was ready to give her around fortythousand dollars, less than my estimated legal fees. She would havebeen free to find another mark, and would have kept her secret lifesecret. Instead, Audrey got nothing, and even had to pay me for thevandalism she did to the Sienna. She was exposed to the world as acon artist and prostitute. I believed and hoped that the FBI, FDLEand the local cops were investigating her and Royce. The obviousanswer was that Audrey was a demented sociopath, believing that shewas somehow above the laws of society, and humanity.

A lot of what Terri Lynn predictedcame true as well. At our first reading, Terri said that Audreywould never settle, and would take the case all the way to court.Then, three months before I got the phone logs with their hundredsof calls to Royce, hotels, and different men, Terri implied thatAudrey was a prostitute. During that first reading, when I askedTerri why Audrey wouldn’t settle,