Texas has its share of bitter, high-profile, high-asset divorces. One is currently playing out in Dallas. It involves a real estate developer, his wife and their plastic surgeon. That plastic surgeon, according to the husband, had an affair with his wife and sold a 23-plus-carat diamond he had purchased as an investment to help promote a book co-authored by — wait for it — the wife.
Now, in addition to dealing with the divorce, which his wife initiated last month, the developer is suing the plastic surgeon and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The doctor works at the university.
In her divorce papers, the wife accused her husband of “years of…physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, drunkenness, and sadistic behavior.” She says that he is filing the suit against the doctor because he was unable to extort $10 million from him. She says he told the doctor that if he didn’t pay up, he would ruin his reputation. The doctor’s online biography says he is married and has children.
The wife’s attorney called the suit a “shameful abuse of the judicial process.” She contends that the issues had already been dismissed by the divorce court judge.
According to the husband, he bought the diamond at $277,000, had it made into a ring that was reportedly appraised at over $1 million, and gave it to his wife to “wear on occasion” until he could sell it. However, he says that she and the doctor “hatched a plan” to sell the diamond and put a cubic zirconia in its place.
While the wife’s portrayal of her husband in the divorce papers is certainly negative, his representation of her in his counter petition is not kind either — although perhaps a bit more colorful. He accuses her of using “her sexual guile coupled with sociopathic cunning (pursuant to her personality disorder)” to convince the doctor to leave his family “so that (she) could continue her pathological self-promotion.”
Most Texas divorces, fortunately, don’t play out in the media, and many don’t have the amount of rancor exhibited here. However, they are never pleasant, and all have their own unique issues and complications. That’s why it is essential to have an experienced family law attorney with whom you feel comfortable going through the sometimes-painful process of dissolving a marriage and who will look out for your best interests.
Source: NBC DFW Channel 5, “Developer Sues Plastic Surgeon Over Diamond, Affair” Scott Gordon, Jun. 19, 2014