|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Justice's woes extend off the field
David Justice's struggles are not limited to the batter's box. The Yankees outfielder, who is 1 for 11 with nine strikeouts at the plate through four games of the World Series, could be spending a good part of his offseason in various courthouses. He has already been the target of palimony litigation in two courts in Los Angeles, and he's involved in a paternity and child support case in his hometown of Cincinnati. The troubles started for Justice in the summer of 1997 (July 9, to be exact) when he met a woman named Nicole Foster in Minneapolis. Justice, then playing for the Cleveland Indians, was in town for a series against the Twins. The final order in his divorce of actress Halle Berry had just been signed less than three weeks earlier. The romance with Foster went well enough for a time. After the 1997 season ended, the couple spent significant time together and, in the spring of 1998, Foster moved into Justice's home in Cincinnati. She joined him a few times on Indians' road trips in 1998 and they lived together after the season. But, court papers say, the relationship began to turn "rocky" early in the spring of 1999. Foster accompanied Justice on a road trip to California that April in what Justice later said was an attempt to get "their relationship back on track." On April 4, Foster says, Justice proposed marriage and gave her an engagement ring. It was a nice effort, but a few weeks later Justice says he called Foster at his house in Cincinnati to tell her he had decided to end the relationship. Foster then told Justice she was pregnant with his child and the couple tried to reconcile, living together in Cleveland for the rest of the 1999 season. Once the season ended, they returned to Justice's home in Cincinnati. Their baby, David Justice Jr., was born on Dec. 27, 1999. Shortly after their son's birth, however, Justice says he moved into his mother's home because his relationship with Foster had come to an end. At Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta a few weeks later, Justice met another woman, Rebecca Villalobos of San Diego; Justice and Villalobos married on Feb. 8, 2001. While Justice was romancing Villalobos, Foster was hiring lawyers for herself and her baby and filing lawsuits. She established paternity and obtained court-ordered child support in Ohio. Then in February 2001, she sued Justice for palimony in California. For her palimony action, Foster hired Marvin Mitchelson, the 73-year-old L.A. lawyer who is credited with having invented palimony in the celebrated 1976 case involving the since deceased actor Lee Marvin and his longtime girlfriend, Michelle Triola. Mitchelson parlayed his success in the Marvin case into a huge divorce practice, representing the likes of Joan Collins and Bianca Jagger. Things later turned sour for Mitchelson. His license to practice law was suspended in 1993 following his conviction for failing to report almost $2 million in income to the IRS. Mitchelson spent two years in federal prison in the mid-90s and was readmitted to the bar in May of 2000. "We're looking for $5 million from Mr. Justice," Mitchelson says of the case based on the couple's two-year romance. It's not going well for Mitchelson and Foster at the moment. On August 15, Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed the palimony suit, stating that the case should have been filed in Cincinnati. Mitchelson then filed an identical claim in federal court in Los Angeles; the federal judge presiding over the case has also ordered him to "show cause" as to why the case should not be heard back in Ohio. Justice's only connections to California were the few ballgames he played there each year and a tailor in Beverly Hills. But, as Justice's lawyers point out, Justice does not go to the tailor; the tailor comes to him. So Justice's team wants the case sent to Ohio. Foster and Mitchelson believe that a jury in Los Angeles will be more generous in an award of palimony than a court in Ohio, and they're probably right. But even if Justice succeeds in moving the case back to Ohio, he will still be facing Foster, the woman scorned. In that event, he may wish he were back in the batter's box trying to dig in against Curt Schilling or Randy Johnson. Sports Illustrated legal analyst Lester Munson regularly holds court on sports law and business matters on CNNSI.com.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
