Posted on 02/13/2012 8:27:39 AM PST by FailDaily.TK
The polo magnate who adopted his girlfriend in an alleged attempt to protect his fortune from a lawsuit must now battle with his teenaged children who want the adoption thrown out.
John Goodman adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend in the fall, giving her a share of the more than $300 million trust he established for his two biological children -- a move that critics said was a ploy to save millions for himself if he loses an upcoming wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a car accident that killed Scott Wilson in February 2010.
The guardian of Goodman's children opened another legal front against the Polo Club Palm Beach founder by asking a judge to throw out the adoption of Heather Ann Hutchins, The Palm Beach Post reports.
The paperwork filed last week in Miami and Palm Beach County on behalf of guardian Jeffrey Goddess alleges that Goodman, 48, defrauded the court, surprised the teenagers' mother and abused adoption rules by taking his main squeeze as his legal daughter, The Post says.
The attorney for Goddess claims that Goodman kept the Oct. adoption secret from his children's guardian and his ex-wife until after Christmas. He also blames Goodman for not telling the judge overseeing the adoption proceedings that Wilson's parents were suing him.
Goodman's lawyer Dan Bachi had previously argued that adopting Hutchins was a way to ensure his children's future and was completely unrelated to the upcoming showdown with the Wilson family, according to Fox News.
A judge in the wrongful death case previously ruled that the children's trust couldn't be touched if Goodman loses the suit. Now that Hutchins is legally his third daughter she's entitled to a portion of that money - possibly worth $5 million per year. Because the trust was off-limits, its size was not known until Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley decided to reveal its worth this week, The Palm Beach Post said in a different report.
Goodman allegedly killed Wilson when he ran a red light and plowed his Bentley into the 23-year-old's car, knocking it into a river and drowning the driver. The civil suit begins in March as does Goodman's criminal trial on DUI manslaughter charges, TV station WPBF reports.
There are very concrete benefits from seeing moral issues in the light of a Higher Authority. Lose that, and all bets are off.
The adoption should be ruled legally null and void ,AND the attorney who handled it disbarred and the judge who approved it removed from the bench and disbarred.The whole adoption was ,and is ,a travesty of adoption.
Rich scumbag trying to avoid financial responsibility for killing someone .
Adopted his money honey? Wow, that’s crazy even by FL standards. She could write a tell-all and vie for a Pulitzer Prize. A Roxanne Pulitzer! ;)
Since when can adults be adopted?
Isn't that the PBPCC? He's a tad young to have founded it.
In fact it used to be that pretty much only adults were adopted. Usually as heirs.
The question is since she is now legally his daughter if he has sex with her do they get charged with incest?
why? it was not illegal.
It was teh letter of the law.
Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt
His happened in Germany where I know it's fairly common. I was surprised to know it can be done in the U.S.
This story has been FReeped a few times. I know - I posted it a few weeks ago. And - in my opinion - this loser will likely end up broke and alone and in jail.
At least I hope so.
By adopting his girl friend, he has already broken ties to his children, and does anyone think for a moment that the GF also won’t screw him over?
And all this trickery on his part is in an effort to avoid losing this $$$ in a civil suit.
Talk about a fool and his money!
assuming his trust is irrevokable....
by adopthing his girlfriend he is able to ultimatly access the money in the trust and circumvent irrevokable... trust.
“.. the whole adoption was and is a travesty of adoption”.
Thank you for writing that, hoosierham! We adopted child number 3 and yes... this is a travesty to those parents who go through a paperwork nightmare, emotional roller coaster ride to adopt. I’d do it again in a heartbeat and she is a beautiful, intelligent and loving little girl that am blessed to call my daughter. The man in the article makes my skin crawl.
I was actually more sympathetic if it had been for kinky reasons than moneygrubbing reasons. How boring.
It is about time we stopped fighting this depravity. I think FreeRepublic should come out and back gay marriage, marriage to socket wrenches,chickens and any other inanimate or animate objects and legalize drugs but mandate urine testing and mandatory jail time for anyone not testing positive.
So this rich guy kills someone and thinks to himself: I’ll make myself poor on paper so I don’t have to pay up. VS cut the family of the guy a check for 2-3 million and move on?
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