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In Real Perry Mason Moment, Husband Admits to Violating Court Orders and Lying in Court
Husband refused to share insurance proceeds with Wife after a fire of a community rental property. Husband argued that he needed the funds to pay ongoing expenses for the rental property while it was being rebuilt. Attorney Stephen Rocha filed a request of the court to disburse a portion of the insurance funds to Wife, as she desperately needed money to live on based on loss of the rental income while the property was being rebuilt.
While Wife's request was pending, the court ordered Husband not to use the insurance funds for personal use. However, Attorney Rocha suspected that Husband was in fact using these funds for personal use, despite denying any portion of these funds to Wife as part of an ongoing strategy to financially hurt Wife to gain advantage in the case. Attorney Rocha demanded that Husband provide bank records to show the funds were intact, but Husband refused.
At the hearing to disburse a portion of the insurance funds to Wife, Attorney Rocha was able to force Husband to admit to the court that he had violated the court orders and had in fact misused the funds for personal use. As a result, not only did Attorney Rocha get a distribution of funds to Wife in the amount asked, the remained funds were removed from Husband's possession and placed in Attorney Rocha's client Trust account for safe keeping. Husband's accounting for misuse of community insurance funds will be addressed at a future hearing and credited against any community property awarded to Husband at the conclusion of the divorce process to correct his wrongdoing.
