U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson will be in court next week for a half-day trial to determine whether his 24-year marriage was valid in the first place, or if his wife was still legally married to another man when they wed.
Lawyers for Grayson, D-Orlando, argue that, unbeknownst to him, Lolita Grayson was still married to a man named Robert Allen Carson — whom she claimed she had divorced — at the time of their wedding April 28, 1990.
Circuit Judge Bob LeBlanc is set to hear testimony on that issue Jan. 22.
Attorneys for Grayson were in court Thursday , when LeBlanc denied a recently filed request by Lolita Grayson's attorney, Mercedes Wechsler, to be removed from the case.
Wechsler said she and her client have been in conflict, and also that the court-ordered $25,000 stipend Alan Grayson provided for his wife's legal fees has run dry.
But Lolita Grayson, who attended the hearing, told LeBlanc that if Wechsler left, she would be unable to replace her. "I do not have any money to pay for another lawyer," she said.
Alan Grayson's attorney, Mark NeJame, told LeBlanc that allowing Wechsler to step aside would likely cause an expensive delay in the upcoming bigamy trial "on the very eve of getting this mess resolved."
Court filings show the divorce case has indeed gotten messy.
Lolita Grayson filed paperwork accusing her husband of failing to pay her credit cards, refusing to provide financial support for their children.
She also said, in an interview with WFTV-Channel 9 , that she had been forced to apply for a food-stamp card.
The congressman's lawyers accused his wife of "scurrilous and specious allegations, and slanderous lies."
The attorneys for Grayson, who says he's been funding his wife to the tune of $10,000 a month, also filed paperwork seeking emergency custody of their children and a mental evaluation of Lolita Grayson.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
