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Reason number 147 that lawyers shouldn’t marry each other
Mary and Ted Roberts are a happily married couple, lawyers both. Now some might argue that they can’t be that happily married, since Mary had four little dalliances in late-2001/early-2002. But the state of Texas says that these weren’t dalliances so much as profit opportunities.
During a six-month period, Mary met and diddled four men (she found at least one of them online). Ted then approached each of the men, post-diddling, and said he would sue them for emotional distress if they didn’t pay him. In total, the Roberts couple managed to extract $144,000 from these men.
In 2005, the couple was indicted for theft, and then re-indicted for the same charges in 2006, and their trial is now set to start next week. The state contends that the couple used deception and coercion to steal the money from these four philanderers, as Ted told the men he’d expose their dalliances if they didn’t pay, opening them up to ridicule and scorn (not to mention a bit of trouble with their own wives). The Roberts’ lawyer says that this wasn’t any capitalism scheme at all. Instead, Ted “was incensed” every time he found out about a new affair, but instead of going and beating the shit out of the guys, he served them with a demand letter (a precursor to a lawsuit), and the guys chose to settle-up so their wives wouldn’t find out.
Believe it or not, there is actually at least a little something to this argument, since this is basically the procedure that happens before many a civil litigation. But something tells me the Roberts aren’t going to be so successful with their argument and that they’ll get to spend the next 20 years in the clink. Which should afford them plenty of time to come up with their next money making scheme.
It’s so sweet when married couples go into business together, ain’t it?
