Los Angeles Dodgers Ownership At Stake In McCourts Split Part II
Off The Richter Scale
Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt divorce was anticpated to become rea; nasty and the begining is starting to reveal itself.
In court papers filed Monday, Jamie fired back at her estranged husband’s accusation of infidelity by alleging:
“Frank [and his lawyers]…make some hurtful and unnecessary personal comments about me,” she wrote. “I would prefer not to address such accusations or to discuss my belief as to Frank’s extramarital activities.”
Monday’s filing, submitted in advance of next week’s court hearing on temporary spousal support, comes five months after Frank said he fired Jamie as the Dodgers chief executive largely because of her alleged affair with her driver.
Jamie has argued for nearly $1 million per month plus $9 million in fees for attorneys and accountants handling the divorce case. Frank has argued that she can support herself and pay her bills pending trial without contribution from him.
Her lawyers further argue that Frank hopes to pin her in a financial position so precarious that she would “cave into his demands and relinquish any claim to the overwhelming bulk of the marital estate, including the Dodgers.”
Jamie hopes to persuade the court to invalidate a marital property agreement that provided her with sole ownership of the couple’s residential properties and provided him with sole ownership of the team.
Her lawyers reiterated that she is entitled to maintain her pre-separation lifestyle pending the outcome of the divorce proceedings, noting that the couple customarily stayed in five-star hotels, ordered bottles of wine costing $100 or more at restaurants and regularly used limousines and private jets. The McCourts also “had their hair done by a hair stylist, who came on an almost daily basis to whichever residence they were then staying.”
The most recent filings also shed some light on the final months of a marriage that lasted almost 30 years. Frank’s last filing included a copy of e-mails between Jamie and Jeff Fuller, the driver with whom she allegedly had an affair, in which Fuller wrote, “He heard us talking” and she replied, “Don’t think so.”
In an interview recently Frank said,
“It’s tough. I’m not going to lie to you,” he says. “It’s a very, very sad thing. Nobody wants to go through this privately, never mind publicly.”
“But in L.A., so much of it is about drama. L.A. is so much about personalities. It’s just how the city functions. This is a juicy story for people until it’s not juicy anymore. Then, they move on to somebody else’s story. Tiger Woods was fantastic for me”
This is a real life version of “The War of the Roses” and the divorce surley has Dodgers fans fearing that this could could ruin their franchise, for which McCourt paid $430 million in 2004. Definitely why manager Joe Torre has been unwilling to discuss contract extensions with the Dodgers.
Dodgers fans are wary, knowing their division foes were hit hard by the divorce of San Diego Padres owners John and Becky Moores last season in which they were forced to sell the club, and the Padres went into a garage sell with their players. They are projected to open the season with a major league-low $40 million payroll.
