Marriage of Jerome and Martinez, In re

• Decision Date: 03 January 1994
• Docket Number: No. 5-92-0808,5-92-0808
• Citation: 625 N.E.2d 1195,193 Ill.Dec. 74,255 Ill.App.3d 374
• Parties: , 193 Ill.Dec. 74 In re MARRIAGE OF Grace E. JEROME, Petitioner-Appellee, and Terry T. MARTINEZ, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 1195

625 N.E.2d 1195

255 Ill.App.3d 374, 193 Ill.Dec. 74

In re MARRIAGE OF Grace E. JEROME, Petitioner-Appellee and Terry T. MARTINEZ, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 5-92-0808.

Appellate Court of Illinois Fifth District.

Jan. 3, 1994.

Barbara Crowder, Crowder & Taliana, Edwardsville, for respondent-appellant.

Julie Keehner Katz, Belleville, for petitioner-appellee.

Justice MAAG delivered the opinion of the court:

Respondent, Terry Martinez, appeals from a judgment of dissolution of marriage entered on June 12, 1992, dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the respondent and the petitioner, Grace Jerome. On appeal, respondent raises the following issues:

(1) Whether the trial court committed reversible error for failing to bifurcate the dissolution proceedings and more particularly for failing to hear grounds first.

(2) Whether the trial court abused its discretion in finding that grounds of extreme and repeated mental cruelty had been established.

(3) Whether the trial court abused its discretion in the distribution of marital property.

(4) Whether the trial court erred in finding that respondent had dissipated marital assets in the sum of $2,500 and awarding petitioner a judgment against respondent for the total sum.

(5) Whether the trial court erred in awarding petitioner the sole custody of the minor children of the parties.

The parties were married on August 8, 1981, in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It was the second marriage for respondent and the first marriage for petitioner. Two children were born to the parties, Laura and Daniel, who were respectively eight and six at the time of the dissolution. Respondent also had two grown daughters from his previous marriage.

In 1991, petitioner was employed part-time teaching at St. Louis College of Pharmacy and was attending law school. Respondent was a tenured professor teaching at St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Sometime during 1991 the respondent became ill, and he did not work from November 26, 1991, through April 3, 1992. During the period of time when respondent did not work, he saw 22 doctors and had numerous tests.

On November 30, 1991, the petitioner took the minor children and vacated the marital domicile of the parties. Petitioner and the children spent approximately one week in a hotel, then they went to the State of New York to petitioner's parents' home. The children were not in school from the first week of December until school resumed in January 1992 after the Christmas break.

On December 9, 1991, the petitioner filed in the circuit court of St. Clair County a petition to dissolve her marriage to the respondent alleging grounds of extreme and repeated mental cruelty and, among other things, sought the sole custody of the parties' children. On the same date, petitioner also filed a petition for temporary custody, temporary support, exclusive control of the premises, and other related relief. In her temporary petition, petitioner alleged that respondent had, on December 2, 1991, cashed in the parties' money market account and certificates of deposit in the sum of $17,000 and was withholding all the funds from petitioner.

On December 18, 1991, respondent filed a petition for temporary relief and a petition for an order of protection. In his petition for order of protection, respondent alleged that petitioner removed the minor children from the marital residence, school, and the State of Illinois without his permission and, thereby, had restricted his access to the children. In his petition for temporary relief respondent sought the temporary custody of the children or, in the alternative, liberal visitation, and the exclusive possession of the marital domicile for his "physical and mental well being", as he was undergoing treatment for a medical condition which had temporarily placed upon respondent physical limitations.

On December 19, 1991, apparently by agreement of the parties, the court entered an order which provided that both parties consented to the exchange of medical and psychiatric records and further ordered each of the parties to undergo psychiatric evaluation and treatment through a psychiatrist of their choice. Petitioner was ordered to return the children to Illinois at her expense, to obtain an apartment in St. Clair County, and to reenroll the children in school they had attended. Respondent was awarded the exclusive possession of the marital domicile, and the parties were granted the joint temporary custody of the children with each party being entitled to the "maximum involvement and participation in the raising and development of the children." Both parties were enjoined from the dissipation of marital assets for the expenditure of items which were not necessities of life or normal expenses in the ordinary and regular course of business. Respondent was granted visitation each Friday from 5:00 p.m. to Saturday at 7:00 p.m., each Monday after school until Tuesday morning, each Wednesday after school to take to school on Thursday, and such other times as petitioner was unavailable to personally care for the children. Petitioner was to have the children at all other times and at any time respondent was unable to personally care for the children.

On December 29, 1991, petitioner with her parents escorted and returned the minor children of the parties to the respondent at the marital domicile. Respondent's parents were present also, and an altercation took place. Respondent had petitioner and her parents arrested for disorderly conduct alleging in the criminal complaints that petitioner and both of her parents had called him a "dirty bastard". The petitioner and her parents were ultimately acquitted of all charges after a hearing in April 1992.

On February 3, 1992, during a pretrial conference the parties jointly asked the court to appoint a psychologist to evaluate the parties regarding custody of the children. Pursuant to section 605 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1991, ch. 40, par. 101, et seq. (now 750 ILCS 5/101 et seq. (West 1992))), the court appointed Daniel Cuneo, PhD., to evaluate the parties and the children, if necessary.

Subsequent to the events and arrests of December 29, 1991, the court entered a detailed order on February 11, 1992, setting forth with great specificity the items of nonmarital personal property that petitioner could remove from the marital domicile as well as the exact time petitioner could access the marital domicile and the number and sex of the persons petitioner could employ to assist. The petitioner was also granted leave to remove the two family dogs from the marital home to board them with a veterinarian to care for them until such time as a new home could be found.

An evidentiary hearing on the petitions for temporary relief was held on March 30, 1992. The court, based upon its independent evaluation of the record, readopted the terms of the order entered December 19, 1991, regarding custody and visitation.

Dr. Cuneo filed on May 19, 1992, his written report to the court. After interviewing both parties, testing both parties, and interviewing the children, Dr. Cuneo concluded that it would be in the best interests of the children to award custody to petitioner as she was found, in Dr. Cuneo's opinion, to be the more psychologically stable parent. In his report, Dr. Cuneo states that petitioner claimed that she left respondent as respondent was obsessed with having a life-threatening illness despite numerous physicians stating that he had no major physical difficulties. Further, respondent refused to seek psychiatric help despite it being recommended by his treating physicians. Petitioner claimed that respondent's behavior had became increasingly bizarre. Petitioner vacated the marital domicile in late November 1991 hoping that respondent would seek psychiatric help, and petitioner was fearful that respondent would hide the children as he had attempted to do with one of his daughters from his first marriage. The report recites respondent's claim that petitioner had abandoned him when he was near death and that petitioner always put her career before respondent and the children. Respondent insisted that he was the parent that provided the primary care for the children, and respondent expressed a belief that petitioner, if she was granted sole custody, would push the children aside.

Based upon his testing and evaluations, it was Dr. Cuneo's express opinion that petitioner had no major psychological difficulties which would impair her parenting functions. Respondent, however, was found to have difficulties that might impair his parenting abilities such as his hypochondriacal obsession with death and illness. Repeatedly throughout his interview session, respondent spoke to Dr. Cuneo of his illness. Respondent was convinced that the illness was life threatening, and he was obsessed with confirming that he had, in fact, a major illness. In his quest for confirmation, respondent related to Dr. Cuneo how he had self-cleansed his scrotum with alcohol and aspirated with a small needle fluid from his epididymis which he sent to a lab for testing. Various doctors rendered various opinions of the type of illness that respondent had. One doctor determined that respondent suffers from an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and another opined that respondent suffers from an adjustment disorder with mixed emotional features.

Respondent reported to Dr. Cuneo that the only reason that he was seeing a psychiatrist was in an attempt to guard himself against someone labeling him as "crazy". Respondent stated his belief that at the root of all his difficulties was the fact that petitioner gave him a sexually transmitted disease. In Dr. Cuneo's opinion such a belief allows respondent to project all blame for all problems on petitioner since she rejected him. Further, Dr. Cuneo felt that respondent's obsession with death and physical...