The abuse scam.
“You can’t have a contract outside of the divorce agreement.”
- Attorney Sheila Baresi in a Pre-trial Conference via phone, 8/21/08
“Oh, they live together?”
– First Assistant Register of the Norfolk Probate Court, (NPFC) John Jenney, 2005.
On February 15th, 2005 docket #03D1651DV1 had what should have been its final entry, the signing of a Divorce Nisi between Lynne Sheridan (Sheridan) and Mark Bell. (Bell) In fact, it was just the beginning.
Bell is not sure of what has transpired outside of his view that day, and many other days of this account of the circumstances. This day started in the Office of First Assistant Register of NPFC John Jenney. (Jenney) It was the rescheduled day of divorce for the two, a date that was pushed back from a few days before Christmas, 2004.[1]
Attorney Michael Podolski, (Podolski) representing Sheridan, approached Bell and Tom Benner (Benner), representing Bell, and asked that Phillip Sheridan, (Phillip) Sheridan’s brother, be present for the mediation session. Both Bell and Benner said “no.”
“You want him in there,” stated Podolski in a manner that Benner and Bell felt was convincing, and the only way progress could be made, as Sheridan made none from her side previously.
Bell and Benner agreed he could be in there.
As soon as the parties sat down for mediation, Jenney asked who, Phillip, was, and why he was there.
“I’m their accountant,” Phillip stated.
“Ok, then sit back there and shut up,” Jenney stated.[2]
The topic of the Irving Canner Testamentary Trust, a trust created by Bell and his family, was on the table, first item. Bell immediately told Benner to stop the discussion, as the trust was not to be on the table per their earlier discussions.
“Shhhhh,” whispered Benner.
Bell was trusting his lawyer, as he was advised by another that while Bell could perform many aspects of the divorce, Pro Se, he should have counsel to wrap it up.
It was decided in very quick order that yearly $5000 distributions from the trust created by Bell’s family, would be not only distributed to Bell and Sheridan for expenses for the children, but Phillip would be reimbursed for some items by the trust that he had paid for, for daughter of the marriage Kelsey.
Judge Carey was having her typical busy day in her courtroom, and had been assigned this case per typical NPFC protocol. From time to time the lawyers went up to her courtroom to update her on the progress of the day’s events. Their time in the courtroom was minimal.
Other items were tossed around and a handwritten-sloppy agreement was prepared. Both lawyers were somewhat rushed. Podolski for reasons unknown. Benner had an event to attend the next day and wanted to get this done. In all, there really was no reason it could not be done in one day.
The day ran late, and Judge Carey stayed late for the final agreement to be signed. At a time that may have been well past typical hours for court business, the couple signed the sloppy agreement with the agreement from Podolski that his office would reprint it neatly at a later time.
One part of the agreement was that a second mortgage on the house would be taken by Bell for $165,000, and proceeds given out to Sheridan for different items, and some would be placed in an escrow account for home maintenance for the duration that the “former marital domicile” would be occupied by Sheridan and the children, with Bell holding a predetermined amount from the mortgage proceeds to get him started on his own.[3]
Benner had just received a mortgage through a lender, Dave Silva, (Silva) of “LoanSnap,” and he suggested that Bell use him as they walked to their cars after the agreement was “pre-signed.”
Within a few days, Bell called Silva and was on his way to getting that part of the agreement done, and was doing all he could to get the other parts of the agreement done.[4]
When it came time for Sheridan to perform the agreement, the first of numerous delays and stalls started taking place. Podolski was involved with those delays, citing numerous factors causing the agreement reprinting to take almost a month, and even got into conversations with Silva regarding the mortgage. Phillip was also involved in these delays, as was Sheridan. These “stalls” went as far as phone calls, per Bell’s account, 88 days into the agreement for reason upon reason. (Attachment 1)
At one point while speaking to Silva about the frustration he was going through, Bell was told by Silva that Podolski had been surprised that the loan company queried the Probate Court to see if a divorce was taking place. Silva knew this was part of their standard property check assurance process, as a divorce highly effects a loan’s characteristics.
In a later conversation, Bell spoke with Jenney about this when talking about the delays, and Jenney said Podolski, a 29-year lawyer, “[not being truthful]” for his “surprise” about it.
In the meantime, months later, in July, 5 months of stalls later, Bell was called to Podolski’s office to sign the loan papers made up with a different loan provider. After all was done, the Sheridan’s refused to make a loan with Silva, after months of his consultation and representation. Podolski picked a person he had done business with in the past, Chris Crehan, who wrote a similar loan to the one Silva offered, using similar lenders, except it was at a higher interest rate.
When he spoke to Podolski that day, Bell asked Podolski: “You’re not going to sneak in another agreement for me to sign, are you? This is just to get the loan, done, right?”
“Yes,” stated Podolski.
Bell rode his motorcycle that day to the Podolski’s office, 100 miles away.
What was called an “Escrow Agreement” was, in fact, waiting for him to sign. The agreement (Attachment 2) specified certain items in consideration of the fact that a $165,000 loan was impossible, and amounts of disbursements needed to be changed.
Bell refused to sign it, and called Benner after he left the office. Bell took the unsigned agreement back home.
Bell called Benner and was told he had to sign the agreement. Bell never did, but Benner stated it had to be signed and Bell authorized him to put his signature on it. Benner turned the agreement in to Podolski.
Sheridan did few things to comply with more than one or two items of the divorce agreement. Her getting what was coming to her was the only actions she took willingly, and without court appearances. It strongly seems as if the Sheridan’s were waiting for the 90-day period in which the divorce becomes permanent to perform anything. Waiting for such a provision to take effect would assure that the property division, a “surviving” part of the agreement in which the trust was part, would be cemented into law, by law.[5]
Sheridan remained in the posture of not performing the actions required in the divorce agreement. This started a path of numerous contempt proceedings by Bell, who was castigated for his actions, then sanctioned by having a requirement to have to go to a Judge at the court to have papers approved for filing before they were filed and could be served.
Bell got to know Jenney better. Jenney remained a worthy person to bounce ideas off of. One day, Bell asked Jenny’s advice about one particular filing, as he had written up either a motion or modification. (Details can be verified but are relatively unimportant.) Jenney said whatever Bell had written should be the opposite. Bell took his advice and went up into the courtroom to bring it to Judge Carey, and took the paper Jenney had stated should be presented, and presented it.
Judge Carey stated it was wrong, and it should be the opposite of what it was. Bell took out the correct paper and presented it. Whether this tripping point was just that, or an accident is arguable.
Bell went though the next months preparing motions for contempt for all that was being done, surviving through lecture after lecture by the Judge and hearing whine after whine from counsel about how HE was bringing so much to court and causing Sheridan to need to pay fees to him. Meanwhile, Sheridan still did not perform unless brought to court, causing her to complain about needing to miss work, pay lawyers, etc. One day she was crying in the hallway about having to be in court, and this was a day SHE had brought the court date to being.
Judge Carey was excellent in both advising Bell to perform a bit better than he had prepared, in some cases, and warning him about potentially frivolous motions and modifications in others. In essence, Bell had the best consultant in the case in the “need” for him to present any filings to the Judge before filing them. When Podolski balked at one of Bell’s filings to Bell, well, it had already been approved by the Judge. Bell even filed to have the “sanction” pulled off the case, and Podolski objected and Judge Carey agreed.
Bell was increasingly frustrated by the lack of performance of Sheridan. One filing of contempt rooted from the inability of Sheridan to produce confirmation that she had changed the beneficiary of a life insurance policy to Bell’s name, per the agreement. This simple act, something that could have been done with a faxed piece of paper to Bell, from an insurance agent Bell had known for 25 years, needed to be brought to court and dealt with there. It appeared that Sheridan was using every opportunity to go to court.
At one point, sick of perjury that Bell felt was contained in numerous documents and instances in court, he went to the Norfolk County DA’s Office next to NFPC. A DA there listened to Bell’s claims and simply stated: “Oh, over there in the Probate Court? They got their own set of rules there and there is nothing we can do about it.”
In the meantime, Bell’s relationship with his children was active, but starting to suffer. His son had left most, if not all of the friends he had while growing up in Cohasset. His daughter Kelsey was becoming more and more jaded towards her father for reasons we didn’t know. (Attachment 3)
Facts had surfaced that indicated that Sheridan’s boyfriend, Gene Katz, has sons that were busted for international drug smuggling, dealing, and weapons charges. A drug vocabulary was surfacing more and more out of Devon, and in a career-aim paper, he stated he might want to enter a career installing audio systems in cars, like one of the sons. Bell noticed that Devon was inseparable from his backpack, and when Bell would pick Devon up for visitations, sometimes he would go to talk to a friend briefly, with backpack, and return. Bell spoke to his son about issues with drugs. Bell also spoke to the DA prosecuting the Katz Brothers to see if the case was real, and what the character of the sons was. He described them as “really bad dudes.” (Attachment 4)
Kelsey was caught drinking by Cohasset Police at a place that she had a better chance of being caught drinking than if she were doing so in the Cohasset Police Department parking lot, the beach parking lot. Bell was only informed, only after her hearing in court, by her mother. Devon claimed that Sheridan was aware of his substance “issues” as well, as she had taken paraphernalia from him numerous times.[6]
It was becoming clear that Sheridan had no intention of serving parts of the divorce agreement regarding the encouragement of co-parenting and communication, either. Throughout the marriage Bell has stated to her about how the kids “were hers,” and not “theirs,” and despite divorce agreement language that encouraged co-parenting, nothing would change, unless Bell’s behavior “hinted” at any sort of similar behavior.
Sheridan took the children on an ocean cruise a one point during a school vacation, giving a letter to the school that was simply lying about why they would be late returning from vacation. (Attachment 5) What’s particularly interesting about this was that Bell had wanted to go on a cruise with Sheridan for decades during the marriage, something the children knew. At the very least, it was awkward for them. Bell and his Westfield companion Amy Shuman (Amy) took Devon clothes shopping for the cruise and they stayed upbeat about it.
Devon told Bell: “I’ll go on a cruise with you someday, too.”
A fax from Benner to Podolski in February, prior to the divorce, indicated that the discussion of the son moving to Westfield (with Dad) was on the table, (Attachment 6a) but Benner stated, he “didn’t want to turn the divorce into a custody battle,” feeling Sheridan would allow Devon to decide where to live.[7]
A letter from Podolski later in the year also indicated that discussion had gone on about Devon moving to Westfield (Attachment 6) during a school meeting Sheridan, Bell and Devon attended.
Bell and Devon had been talking about Devon moving to Westfield as a possibility since the summer after his freshman year at Cohasset High School. His schooling was useless, his drive to make it better waning, and he was not interacting with the friends he grew up with, spending time with new friends from Hull and two others, younger than he, from the neighborhood. He had not spent much time with them prior. Calls to the Cohasset High School by Bell revealed that Devon’s IEP was providing some support, but his sloppy homework and classroom behaviors were points of problems.[8]
Bell brought the topic up in as many discussions by phone that he had with Sheridan. Sheridan stated in court and to Family Services Representatives (FSR) that phone calls with Bell were terrible experiences and “she didn’t do emails.”[9]
Bell and Devon had pretty much decided that Devon would be moving to Westfield. During some visitations, Devon went to the Vocational school 700 feet from the Westfield house to see if he was interested in its curriculum and he could sign up to go there. The school received Devon’s grades from Cohasset, and suggested that he should enter there and repeat his freshman year.