Family Law

Nevada Governor?s Divorce is Made Official

By ckramer

Las Vegas is a city known for quick marriages, but Nevada?s governor, Gov. Jim Gibbons, recently finalized his divorce from wife Dawn when a family court judge in Reno, Nevada, signed the divorce decree.

According to the Associated Press, the first family of Nevada has officially split.

The Gibbons’s divorce marks the first time in the state?s history that a sitting governor has gotten a divorce. That?s not the only first, however. Gibbons was also the first incumbent governor to lose a party primary. Gibbons lost the Republican primary a month ago, to a former federal judge, and so he won?t be returning to the governor?s role.

The divorce between Jim Gibbons and ex-wife Dawn was not an extremely amicable one. They had reached a tentative divorce settlement in December, the AP article says, but even since then they raised disputes about details in the case.

The couple still had some things to work out, but Judge Frances Doherty was confident that the pair?s lawyers could settle those outstanding matters among themselves. Such items that were still in dispute include political memorabilia, some as objects signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Dawn Gibbons was emotional after the trial, appearing in tears after she left the courtroom. She declined comment, but her lawyer, Cal Dunlap, spoke on her behalf, saying, “she?s officially divorced.”

Governor Gibbons after the court appearance said, ?Nobody is happy about today. The only thing that pleases me is that I can stop paying attorney fees.?

This divorce has not been without its dramatic turns and salvos lobbed back and forth. Gov. Gibbons, for his part, filed for the divorce in 2008, comparing his wife in one court document to an ?enraged ferret in a phone booth.?

Dawn Gibbons, on the other hand, claimed that Jim was having affairs with the estranged wife of a doctor in Reno, and with a Playboy model. Gov. Gibbons denied these allegations.

According to the divorce settlement that was reached recently, Gov. Gibbons will have to pay 25 percent of his gross income in alimony to Dawn. That?s around $4,000 per month through the end of his term as governor, which will come later this year.

The pair already sold their home in Reno, and will sell 40 acres of land in Lamoille, Nevada.

The political memorabilia mentioned above include some correspondence from President Reagan, and 10 White House Christmas cards from both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration.

The governor claims that he already gave away the Christmas cards to big-time campaign contributors. The judge, then, told him to give Dawn the names of those that he gave them to. She described them as ?framed paintings? depicting White House Christmas scenes.

?I would love to have my half of those,? she told the AP.

The governor, on the other hand, claimed that there were no paintings. ?They are just poster,? he said. ?Lithographs. They are not thousands and thousands of dollars.? He said that all of his political memorabilia was in storage. ?She can have what?s in the warehouse,? he said in court.

There is little else to determine in the case. ?If we are down to this last issue, I think we can all feel pretty good about what you have done here,? the judge told the participants.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on July 28, 2010 (boomark / email).