
Last Monday I decided to break the news to my husband that I had had enough of his abuse and was leaving. I called my father and told him a little of what had been going on and he decided to get on a plane and fly here the next day to help me before I ended up in the hospital having had a nervous breakdown. Tuesday afternoon when "J" arrived home from work he was met with my father. After a few hours of fighting I left with my father to sleep at a hotel for the evening. Upon returning to the house the next day, "J" had calmed down a bit and was ready to talk like an adult (sort of). For three days we went back and forth with negotiations of possibly trying a separation instead of rushing into a divorce. I was willing to talk about giving it one more try if he was willing to give up some of his control. Friday I attended marital dissolution workshop upon "J"’s request. I gave him the option to go in my place, but he declined. After the workshop we were to sit down and go over the paperwork together so I could try to explain what it all meant. Since I was unable to answer several of his questions, he decided that he needed to wait until Monday and talk to Navy legal before signing anything, but he was still acting as though he was willing to sign with no problems. We had agreed to split the money I the bank account. He told me that when we move out of housing we would have to pay them $1100, so he would put that amount aside and split the rest which was supposedly $647. I transferred that amount to my personal account with his permission thinking he was getting the same amount.
He requested that we spend the weekend with the girls together as a family and I agreed. We told the girls on Saturday that we were getting separated for 6 months and that they and I were moving to TN. There were a few tears but after about 10 minutes that was over and it was on with the weekend. We spent the weekend shopping for the girls, with me charging most of it to my credit card.
Monday came and he went to the JAG lawyer on base to get his questions answered. By this point we had done five days worth of negotiations (by negotiations, I mean arguing and him going back and forth about whether or not he wanted to agree to the terms we had written up) and I was ready to just get it over with already. When he returned home from the lawyer he started talking about not wanting to sign the paper work and not wanting give me permission to leave the state. My Father had now paid for seven days in a hotel room and the stall tactics were now pissing me off!
Finally after another exhausting two hours of “discussions” I said “Fine, you don’t want to sign the agreement…see you in court!” The agreement was VERY generous I assure you!! (I was only asking for $2000 in child support and was willing to give up spousal support. Giving him monthly visitation and allowing him to even stay at my house so he doesn't have to pay for a hotel. I was even going to leave all of the furniture with him. All I wanted was written consent to move out of state with the girls in return....NOW my lawyer has informed me that the
minimum amount I will get is around $2433 child support and $886 spousal. I will STILL be allowed to move out of state and I will get a good chunk of his retirement, plus most of the furniture. PLUS he will only be able to see the kids on holidays and maybe part of the summer now. Yep, we are in CA not PA!! All of the BAD advise he took from his family will bite him in the ass.)
I drove straight to my Father’s hotel to pick him up, then headed to the courthouse. I filed for marital dissolution (not separation) and I also filed a restraining order against him since during the course of the negotiations, he had made several threats to me. Since I had no reason not to believe his threats because of past physical abuse, I thought it was best that he not be allowed near my girls or myself once he found out I had actually gone through with filing for the divorce. While sitting in the courthouse waiting for the judge to grant me the restraining order, I decided that I should probably transfer the other half of my half of the checking account (which was $550).
When I arrived home that evening I was escorted by two police officers that served "J" with divorce papers and a restraining order. Now I had been trying to get this man to peacefully leave the house for weeks and he kept telling me that it is HIS house NOT mine and I am the one that needs to pack a leave. As he is talking to the police officer he is STILL insisting that he will not leave HIS house. The officer asks me if me and the girls and my father have somewhere to go. “Yes a hotel. The five of us can go to a hotel OR he can go to a hotel.” The officer then tries yet again to explain to him what is going on and how it is going to look to the judge if he makes me pack up all three of my girls and go stay at a hotel. FINALLY he decides to go pack some things and leave. Instead of packing a few things for the night and leaving and coming back in the morning when the girls are in school to get the rest of his things, he makes a huge spectacle in front of the kids and packs like four bags full of stuff. He even makes the middle daughter (the most sensitive one…the one that is crying uncontrollably) go downstairs and retrieve some bags from the closet and help him pack. She, of course, starts crying even harder.
After he finally is escorted off the premises and everything settles down I decided to take care of a few things on the computer, checking my bank account first. As I am going through the statement I see he transferred $1307 the week before and then another $700 that same day I took $550. The scumbag LIED to me(nothing new I assure you)!! He didn’t calculate half the money. He calculated 1/4 and took the rest for himself. He was going to send me and his three kids off to move to TN with $647 while he kept $2550 for himself. Even if we did have to pay housing $1100 to move out(which is a crock of shit) he would still have kept $1450 for himself while his wife and three kids moved to TN with $647 to their name.
To top all that off, he emptied the bank account before all checks posted and the check to my credit card account (which we
BOTH charged on) bounced, so
I was charged a $35 returned check fee!
Yep, I married, and stayed married for 15 years, to a selfish, money grubbing scumbag!!!