Monthly Archives: December 2011

Miami-Dade Court Clerk Employee Nabbed for Scam: Officials

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A Miami-Dade court clerk employee was arrested Thursday for trying to scam someone into paying him $250 to get a traffic ticket case onto the criminal court calendar, authorities said.

Godfrey Mead, 35, an 11-year employee of the Miami-Dade County clerk of the courts, offered to get a woman’s traffic ticket situation clarified by putting it on the calendar for $250 in a hallway in front of courtroom 6-5 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in downtown Miami, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced.

There is no charge for that type of scheduling action under the law. When Mead was asked the reason for giving him money, he said, “It’s for my friends,” according to Rundle.

Mead is charged with unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, a second-degree felony, she said.

According to the State Attorney’s Office investigator who worked the case, Mead attempted to take advantage of a former friend, a woman who asked him on Nov. 1 how she could get her case on the calendar.

The woman just finished a state program that allowed her to reinstate her suspended driver’s license, but as it was being reinstated she received a traffic ticket for driving with a suspended license, investigator Richard Burton said. The woman wanted to settle the new ticket but was “somewhat confused” about how she could get her case on a judge’s calendar, Burton added.

Mead acknowledged in a written statement that he “told somebody to give me money to put back on the calendar to get their cases taken [care] of by a judge,” Burton reported.

Mead is being held at the pretrial jail on NW 13th Street on $7,500 bond, according to Miami-Dade Corrections. A defense attorney is not yet listed for his case, which is due to come before Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat – in courtroom 3-1 of the Gerstein Justice Building.

Will Smith Parties With Blonde Girl

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Posted by Adam

Friday December 30, 2011

WILL Smith has fueled rumors his marriage is on the brink — after he was caught partying in trendy South Beach with a hot blonde.

According to photos obtained and published by American tabloid the National Enquirer, Will — who’s married to Jada Pinkett Smith — drinks and parties hard at one of the Miami area’s ritziest romantic hideaways on December 18.

“He was fascinated by the woman,” a source said.

“Several times I saw him put his hand on her arm. He was paying little attention to other people at the table. Then when they left and were waiting for their cars, he was shadowboxing and clowning around for her – and she was totally into him!”

“Will was behaving like a bachelor, and Jada seemed to be the last thing on his mind.”

Recent reports claimed Will and Jada — who have been married 15 years and raise two children together — fight constantly and Will is always out partying with the guys.

“They’ve been faking it for a long time and they don’t want to live a lie anymore,” an insider told Star magazine.

“Living and sleeping separately — and now Will finally walking out on Jada — have pushed them to their limit. They’re done.”

“Will and Jada are finished,” says another insider. “They’re still keeping up appearances because they worry divorce could hurt their careers, but there’s no turning back now. It needs to end.

“They’ve been trying to work through it, but things came to a head in early November, when they got into a huge knock-down, drag-out fight.

“They put up a good front in public, but behind doors they really fight like cats and dogs. They’ve always had issues in their relationship, and now they’re bubbling to the surface.”

“Will feels like he’s living a lie for everyone else, but he knows it needs to end. They can’t keep pretending.”

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Katy Perry Divorce: Why Did Russell Brand File for Split? All the Details on Celeb Divorce

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‘It just wasn’t there.’

According to sources for TMZ, Katy Perry, 27, and Russell Brand, 36, knew the relationship was on the rocks some months ago. The pair tried valiantly to save the marriage, but by December it was clear that their feelings for each other had changed.

“It just wasn’t there,” sources report, quite a change for Brand’s effusive declaration on the Ellen DeGeneres show earlier this month that he would love Perry “perpetually… till death do us part.”

These same sources say that the reason Katy Perry and Russell Brand were apart for the holidays (and both out of town) was so that the soon-to-be-divorced couple could avoid local paparazzi when the papers were filed.

But if the split was a reasonably amicable one, as Brand claims, then why did Perry make him be the one to file for divorce?

According to these same sources, Katy Perry asked her husband to be the one to divorce her due to her religious beliefs and the beliefs of her devoutly Christian parents.

Since Perry was raised by evangelical Christians, she was brought up to believe that divorce is wrong, a belief that her parents still hold dear. As a result, she didn’t want to be the one to “officially” end the marriage, and asked Brand to do it for her.

Brand to Perry: ‘Tone it down.’

Another rumor about the Katy Perry divorce, however, has quite a different explanation for the split. This is the version where Perry is the one to blame… and ends up completely “blindsided” by Brand filing for divorce.

According to reports by The Daily Mail, Brand, a recovered drug and sex addict, had trouble supporting Katy Perry’s party lifestyle, like her 24-party in Rio earlier this year.

When the couple first got married, Brand credited Perry with giving him the strength to overcome his addictions, and for giving him a life outside of work. “For a long while, what I do professionally was all that mattered to me really,” he said. “Now I think, well, whatever I do, I’ll just go back to her, and that’s incredibly comforting.”

But as the couple’s marriage began to be strained by their jet-set lifestyles, Perry’s love of partying began to irk the ex-addict, and sources claim he had issues with Perry’s friends, like fun-loving singer Rihanna, as well.

Sources now claim that Brand told Perry to “tone it down” a few months back, but that the singer brushed him off. Since Katy Perry has yet to comment on the divorce, some news sources speculate that Brand may have filed the divorce papers without telling her. The court document does not list a date of separation.

Did Distance Drive Them Apart?

Whether or not Perry was the one pushing for the divorce or the one devastated by the news, another factor comes into play when examining their marriage.

With the couple’s conflicting schedules and frenzied lifestyle, some estimates indicate that the pair spent only about a month and a half together out of their 14 months of marriage. Brand and Perry were reportedly having daily conference calls with a relationship therapist about the distance issue before the wedding even took place.

No Pre-Nup Spells Trouble For Divorce

Now that divorce proceedings are underway, however, a new issue has emerged: the possibility that Katy Perry and Russell Brand didn’t get a pre-nup.

Court documents show that when Brand filed for divorce, he asked that each party pay their own attorney fees and that rights to the couple’s “community property assets” be determined as the papers go through.

This suggests that the pair failed to make a pre-nuptial agreement before getting married, and that Katy Perry’s massive fortune may end up significantly dented once the divorce is over.

And one need only look at the Kobe Bryant divorce to see where lack of a pre-nup can get celebrity couples into trouble.

Barahona judge’s efforts to ferret out leaks detailed

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“Exceedingly chagrined” that a newspaper had published details about a controversial child custody hearing that she had wanted to keep secret, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia calendared a court hearing for Aug. 26 to ferret out who leaked.

But a day before the scheduled proceeding, an attorney for the Miami-Dade court system told The Miami Herald’s lawyers there would be no hearing. Their presence wasn’t needed.

What court administrators didn’t say: All the courtroom participants under suspicion of talking were going to be in court anyway that morning — at a conference the public was forbidden to attend. And Sampedro-Iglesia had another plan. She was going to require all of them to sign sworn statements that they had not betrayed her trust.

“Where, as here, confidential information is leaked, the Court is vested with the authority to take additional measures to ensure the children are protected and the Court’s orders are followed,” she wrote.

The fight over courtroom access and records concerned the fate of 10-year-old Victor Barahona, who was found Feb. 14 by a road ranger on the side of Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach, convulsing and drenched with chemicals inside his adoptive father Jorge Barahona’s pickup truck. Jorge Barahona was nearby, on the ground, also ill. The decomposing body of Victor’s twin sister, Nubia, was later found soaked in chemicals and shoved inside a trash bag in the truck..

Police and prosecutors later said the twins had been “tortured” for months inside the Barahonas’ Miami-Dade home.

The case has come to symbolize the longstanding tensions between the rights of abused children to keep private the details of their suffering — versus the public’s desire to hold its government accountable. In the months following Nubia’s death, The Miami Herald went to court four times seeking to compel the release of records or fight efforts to close to the public hearings about the Barahona children. The details surrounding the efforts of Sampedro-Iglesia and State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to identify leakers are contained in court records the newspaper obtained this week after filing suit for their release.

“One of the greatest privileges our Constitution provides is free press afforded by the First Amendment; however, the children in this case deserve their right to privacy, and it is this Court’s responsibility to protect these children,” Sampedro-Iglesia wrote in an order.

But Carole Shauffer, executive director of the Youth Law Center, who is helping Florida’s Department of Children Families improve foster care under a private grant, said privacy concerns often have been used to shield public officials from scrutiny. “Agencies act,” she said, “as if the privacy is there to protect them. It is not. It is supposed to protect the child.”

In the weeks following the twins’ discovery, The Herald published a series of stories documenting critical lapses in the state’s supervision of the former foster children.

The Barahonas had been allowed by the state to adopt the twins in 2009 even though “the red flag of caution and warning was raised many times” by people around the family, including a principal and a volunteer guardian , according to the report done by a panel that investigated how the system failed. Even as Nubia’s body was discovered, two reports to the state’s abuse hotline had gone unheeded.

The Florida Bar – Daily News Summary

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An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department. Electronic links are only active in today’s edition. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.

Dec. 30, 2011

–Legal Profession–

ATTORNEY PROMOTES REPARATIONS FOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS– WSVN Miami (FOX), http://web1.wsvn.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A law firm is working hard to obtain benefits for dozens of Holocaust survivors in South Florida. Attorney Steven Marcus of Fort Lauderdale was able to get a monthly pension for one of his clients, who was liberated from Auschwitz more than 60 years ago. The German government is offering the payments to survivors who fulfill certain criteria, including residing in a ghetto for 60 months. Marcus, who is an attorney for Fowler White Boggs, is now working pro bono to get similar benefits for many other survivors, because South Florida has a large population of Holocaust survivors. “The work that we’re doing is based on a program, a pension-based program, that the German government is offering for Holocaust survivors who had spent time in the ghettos before they were taken to forced labor camps,” Marcus said.

STUART ATTORNEY’S WEBSITE EXPLAINS BUSINESS LAW, CIVIL LAWSUITS– Jupiter Courier, http://www.tcpalm.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
Stuart attorney David Steinfeld has created a free online resource for 2012 so local residents can better understand business law and the process of civil lawsuits. Videos and articles can be accessed at www.davidsteinfeld.com. Steinfeld is a board certified business litigation lawyer with Kramer, Sopko Levenstein P.A.

–Lawyer Ethics/Legal Discipline–

DISCIPLINED ATTORNEY IS PERMANENTLY DISBARRED– Sarasota Herald Tribune, http://www.heraldtribune.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A former Sarasota attorney has been permanently disbarred for failing to notify his clients and other attorneys that he was first disbarred in May. Stanley Marable, 62, who formerly worked on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union around Sarasota, has been disciplined four times in 2010 and 2011. The Florida Bar disbarred Marable in May because two clients complained they had paid him $1,500 and $1,600 but he was no longer responsive to their calls. Marable then did not respond to The Florida Bar when its investigators looked into the complaints.

FDIC FILES MALPRACTICE SUIT AGAINST SARASOTA LAW FIRM– Sarasota Herald Tribune, http://www.heraldtribune.com, Dec. 30, 2011. [Also: FDIC FILES $4.6M SUIT AGAINST SARASOTA ATTORNEY, LAW FIRM-- Bradenton Herald, http://www.bradenton.com, Dec. 30, 2011.]
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has filed a malpractice suit against one of Sarasota’s most prominent law firms and one of its senior partners in connection with a $5.3 million loan made by the now-defunct First Priority Bank. The FDIC’s lawsuit claims Icard Merrill attorney Robert Messick breached his fiduciary duty by failing to inform First Priority’s board of directors that he represented nearly all the parties in a deal to develop the River Meadows property, along the Upper Manatee River. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tampa, also claims that Messick failed to tell First Priority’s board that an option to buy a 25-acre parcel of land, which comprised part of the bank’s collateral for the loan, did not exist. Icard Merrill Cullis Timm Furen Ginsburg P.A. Managing Partner Michael Furen denied the accusations.

FLORIDA SUPREME COURT DISBARS CONVICTED TAMPA LAWYER– St. Petersburg Times, http://www.tampabay.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A Tampa lawyer sent to prison for her role in an investment fraud has been banned from practicing law, The Florida Bar said Thursday. The disbarred lawyer, Katherine Crase, of 2804 W. Aquilla St., had been practicing since 1991. A federal grand jury accused her and two co-defendants in 2007 of trying to fraudulently raise $30 million through the sale of notes in a company called Precision Explorations.

FLORIDA SUPREME COURT SUSPENDS ATTORNEY JEREMY ALTERS– Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A divided Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday [Dec. 28] suspended Miami attorney Jeremy Alters for allegedly misappropriating trust accounts to cover personal overdrafts, paying clients with money from other clients’ trust accounts and taking out loans of $14 million to cover client obligations. The court, in a 4-3 opinion, approved a petition for emergency suspension filed by The Florida Bar Dec. 22. The suspension means that Alters cannot accept new clients, must cease representing his current clients after 30 days and must freeze his trust accounts. The Supreme Court also appointed Joel Brown, chief judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, to referee Alters’ disciplinary case and trial. [The Daily Business Review does not provide free links to its articles.]

FORMER BELLE GLADE COUNCILWOMAN AND COMMUNITY ACTIVIST BANNED FROM PRACTICING LAW IN FLORIDA– Palm Beach Post, http://www.palmbeachpost.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A former Belle Glade councilwoman and prominent community activist has been banned from practicing law in Florida, the upshot of her work on a failed housing project. In a sharply worded petition, The Florida Bar argued that Dorothy Mae Walker should be disbarred permanently. The Florida Supreme Court agreed. In 1988, Walker was disbarred. The Bar charged that she lied when she told a judge she had hired a lawyer for her brother, who was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges. The disbarment would not have completely closed the door to practicing again – Walker could have reapplied for admission to the Bar after five years, when she would have faced rigorous readmission criteria. She never did. In a recent letter to lender attorneys and in a legal motion, though, Walker signed off as “attorney in fact” for We Help Community Development Corp., the developer of Abidjan Estates. It’s a third-degree felony to practice law while disbarred.

–Judiciary–

A JUDICIAL POWER GRAB– Pensacola News Journal, editorial, http://www.pnj.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
Gov. Rick Scott is definitely getting a handle on this politician thing. Last week it was reported that he wants the Legislature to give him far more power to appoint judges. It should not. “When you’re elected governor, people expect you to not have a limit on who you can appoint,” Scott said in a radio interview. Uh, not so much governor. That kind of authority might be found in the hands of some CEOs of large corporations, but even most powerful executives find, in practice, that they are limited, usually by a board of directors. In government, power is wisely diluted to prevent anyone from grabbing too much of it. Even the president of the United States is limited in his appointment powers. And should be. As should governors.

MIAMI-DADE COURT CLERK EMPLOYEE NABBED FOR SCAM– NBC6.NET South Florida, http://www.nbc6.net, Dec. 6, 2011.
A Miami-Dade court clerk employee was arrested Thursday for trying to scam someone into paying him $250 to get a traffic ticket case onto the criminal court calendar, authorities said. Godfrey Mead, 35, an 11-year employee of the Miami-Dade County clerk of the courts, offered to get a woman’s traffic ticket situation clarified by putting it on the calendar for $250 in a hallway in front of courtroom 6-5 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in downtown Miami, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced. There is no charge for that type of scheduling action under the law. When Mead was asked the reason for giving him money, he said, “It’s for my friends,” according to Rundle. Mead is charged with unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, a second-degree felony, she said.

–Civil Justice Issues–

BOTH LESBIAN MOMS HAVE PARENTAL RIGHTS, DAYTONA COURT RULES IN CUSTODY DISPUTE– Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
They fell in love, moved in together in a house in south Brevard County and had a baby girl. Now they are fighting over who should raise the child. But unlike most couples, they are two women. One donated the egg. The other had it implanted into her womb and carried the child to term. So which one is the mother? The woman who bore the child says it is she and she alone. A circuit judge in Brevard County, writing that it broke his heart to say so, ruled that she’s right. Under Florida law, a woman who gives birth is the mother. Last week, however, a state appeals court in Daytona Beach overturned his decision, saying the other mother has parental rights, too.

FEDERAL HOTLINE SET UP FOR IMMIGRATION DETAINEES– WPBF Palm Beach Gardens, http://www.wpbf.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
In the latest volley between the federal government and states pushing anti-illegal-immigration laws, the Obama administration announced Thursday it was establishing a new hotline for immigration detainees who feel they “may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime.” The 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week hotline is part of a “broader effort to improve our immigration enforcement process and prioritize resources to focus on threats to public safety, (on) repeat immigration law violators, recent border entrants, and immigration fugitives while continuing to strengthen oversight of the nation’s immigration detention system and facilitate legal immigration,” a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The hotline number is (855) 448-6903.

–Criminal Justice Issues–

CASEY ANTHONY CAN STAY SILENT IN CIVIL CASE, JUDGE SAYS– Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com, Dec. 30, 2011. [Also: CASEY ANTHONY WILL NOT HAVE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS IN CIVIL CASE-- Central Florida News 13, http://www.cfnews13.com, Dec. 30, 2011.]
A judge ruled Thursday that Casey Anthony doesn’t have to answer questions in a civil defamation suit brought by Zenaida Gonzalez because her criminal appeal is still pending. Attorneys for Anthony argued she should be able to assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because she’s appealing her convictions for lying to law enforcement. Circuit Judge Lisa Munyon agreed in a two-page order, writing that courts “have long recognized that the fifth amendment privilege may be properly asserted” during a pending appeal.

PROSECUTORS PONDER RETRIAL FOR EX-COCOA DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF– Florida Today, http://www.floridatoday.com, Dec. 30 , 2011.
Prosecutors will weigh whether to retry former Cocoa Deputy Police Chief Bobby Jones for battery after a guilty verdict read in court Thursday was thrown out when a lone juror changed her mind. “No,” the woman said twice when asked by County Judge A.B. Majeed if she agreed with the guilty verdict that only minutes before she signed off on with five other jurors. It was an unexpected and dramatic twist that prompted Assistant State Attorney Pat Whitaker to stand, raise his arms in bewilderment and say he had “never had this happen.” Jones was charged with misdemeanor battery after his then-girlfriend, Cara Allain, 22, reported being punched and dragged by the off-duty deputy chief outside of a Melbourne pub on Dec. 18, 2010. Majeed declared a mistrial after jurors were polled individually in open court following the verdict’s reading.

WRONGLY CONVICTED ORLANDO WOMAN SUES POLICE– WFTV Orlando (ABC), http://www.wftv.com, Dec. 30, 2011.
A woman who was convicted of a crime she did not commit filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Orlando Police department, an Orlando police officer and the Public Defender’s office. Malenne Joseph was arrested and jailed for vandalizing an Orlando home in 2007. Joseph spent three months behind bars at the Orange County jail. After her jury trial, it was revealed that Joseph was not the vandal and her conviction was dismissed. Two attorneys discovered several mistakes in Joseph’s case including incorrect statements from eyewitnesses. Joseph was working at an Orange County Burger King at the time of the vandalism, but investigators did not check with her employer or co-workers to verify if she was there.

Miami Returning $83000 in Shapiro Donations

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The University of Miami is giving back $83,000 it says it received “directly and indirectly” from Nevin Shapiro, the former Hurricanes booster and convicted Ponzi scheme architect whose claims of giving athletes and recruits extra benefits for nearly a decade sparked an NCAA investigation.

Court records show the agreement between the school and bankruptcy trustee Joel Tabas was filed last week. Once the agreement becomes finalized, Miami would have 14 days to make payment to Tabas, who is overseeing the effort to recoup money that Shapiro’s investors lost.

“The agreement was the result of a lengthy negotiation process and brings closure to the University’s obligations in the bankruptcy case,” Miami’s general counsel office said in a statement, and Tabas affirmed that to be the case in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The NCAA said in August that eight players would be suspended for either one, four or six games — most got only one-game bans — and that they and four others would have to pay back what they received from Shapiro, who claimed to give extra benefits to 72 players and football recruits during his time as a booster, along with contributions to the university’s athletic department.

As a condition of the agreement, once it becomes final, the trustee “releases the University and the Athletes from any and all claims, counterclaims … whether liability be direct or indirect.” In short, that means the value of the gifts past and present players received from Shapiro will likely not be pursued by the trustee.

“This amount includes payment of $3,000 in penalties levied by the NCAA on 11 current student-athletes who received improper benefits from Mr. Shapiro,” the university’s statement said.

Shapiro said he gave athletes money, cars, yacht rides and other benefits from 2002 through 2010. He is serving a 20-year prison term for overseeing a $930 million Ponzi scheme, and involuntary bankruptcy proceedings to recover at least some of the money his investors lost were initiated in 2009. When he was sentenced, federal officials said his grocery-distribution scam led to investor losses of at least $80 million.

The NCAA is expected to levy sanctions against Miami when its inquiry into the school’s compliance practices concludes. Miami’s football team did not make itself eligible for selection to a bowl game this season, a self-imposed penalty related to the NCAA investigation.

Previous court records show that Miami agreed in July 2010 — more than a year before the full extent of Shapiro’s claims were unveiled in a Yahoo Sports reports — to repay $130,307 from debtors also involved in the bankruptcy proceedings.

According to the latest court documents, Tabas found “additional potential claims against the University and certain University prior and current athletes” after that settlement. The documents also show that the school and the trustee had some dispute about the new claims, but adds that the school believes resolving the matter is “in the best interests of all parties.”

There is no known timetable for the completion of the NCAA inquiry.

Russell Brand files for divorce from Katy Perry

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So that’s why he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring: Russell Brand has filed for divorce from Katy Perry TMZ reports. The British comedian released a statement: “Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage. I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll remain friends.’’ In court documents filed in L.A., Brand cites the old “irreconcilable differences.’’ The two were married Oct. 23, 2010, in India. It was common knowledge that the couple was having problems, and spent the holidays apart.

Reports raise questions about Gingrich’s first divorce

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Gingrich: Over-regulation stymies private sector

Newt Gingrich

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The story behind Newt Gingrich’s first divorce more than three decades ago is coming back to haunt the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for president.

The thrice-married Gingrich has long claimed that it was his first wife, Jackie, who initiated the 1980 proceedings, and their daughter penned an article in May to rebut claims that Gingrich served her with divorce papers on a hospital bed.

But this week, CNN and Bloomberg have each published accounts casting serious doubt on the former House speaker’s version of events

In essence, CNN and Bloomberg say it was Gingrich himself who wanted the divorce, not Jackie.

“It’s totally untrue that she wanted the divorce, and Newt knows that,” Dot Crews, who worked in the former Georgia lawmaker’s office for five years through 1984, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview this week and published Wednesday.

Now 80, Crews told the financial news agency that Gingrich confided to him during a car ride in Georgia that he’d decided to file for divorce.

On Monday, CNN said it had obtained documents from the Georgia courthouse where the divorce papers were filed which contradict Gingrich’s assertion that Jackie Battley Gingrich initiated the proceedings.

In the documents, Gingrich filed a complaint on July 14, 1980, arguing for divorce because the marriage was broken.

Full coverage: Campaign 2012

In Jackie’s response, she argued “she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time.”

“Although defendant (Jackie Battley Gingrich) does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken, defendant has been hopeful that an arrangement for temporary support of defendant and the two minor daughters of the parties could be mutually agreed upon without the intervention of this court,” her petition said. “All efforts to date have been unsuccessful.”

One of those daughters, now known as Jackie Gingrich Cushman, was 13 at time. Earlier this year she published an article in support of her famous father on the conservative website Townhall.com. She offered her first-hand account of the divorce and the famous hospital visit in 1980 at Emory University in Atlanta, where her mother was having a tumor removed.

“My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested,” Cushman wrote. “As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.”

She said her mother did not wish to discuss the matter in public and “deserves respect and should be allowed to live in peace.”

“We will not answer additional questions or make additional comments regarding this meaningless incident, which occurred more than three decades ago,” she wrote.

Her father, however, was asked about the divorce as recently as Tuesday at a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa.

“It’s 30 years old,” Gingrich told reporters who asked about the contradictory accounts, according to Bloomberg. “You can read my younger daughter’s column and talk to her. She’s covered it, I think, more than adequately, and that’s all I’m going to say on that.”

Gingrich may not want to talk about it, but the controversy is not going away.

Full CBS News coverage: Newt Gingrich