Splitsville News

I have a few Connecticut divorce blog posts so far, including a fairly recent one about Dr. Perricone and his wife (and the court’s decision to uphold the voluntary restraining order the former Mrs. Perricone signed) and an older one about round one of divorce proceedings in the David and Douglas-David case (where the UTC Board Chair and his Swedish countess wife are divvying up assets).

Lest you be yearning for more Connecticut divorce news, the Courant.com site has another tale of difficult divorce here.  Let me directly quote the first line of the story:  “Obsession over a protracted and emotional divorce may have been behind advertising executive Richard J. Shenkman’s threats Tuesday to blow up the South Windsor home where authorities say he held his ex-wife hostage for much of Tuesday.”  Yikes.

I think “obsession” may not be strong enough of a word for this case.

The couple–Nancy Tyler and Richard Shenkman–had finalized their divorce last year.  Despite that, they still had unresolved issues including who would occupy the family home in South Windsor; it had been awarded to Tyler but Shenkman wasn’t vacating it.  On the day she was taken hostage, Richard Shenkman’s former spouse was headed to a court hearing that could have found Shenkman in contempt for his refusal to vacate the house.  Today’s story says that Shenkman was arraigned on charges from torching the South Windsor home.  Bail is a cool $2.5 million for this fire and $10 million for the summer home fire.  Shenkman himself is on suicide and mental health watch.  I’m no mental health professional, but I’d say an individual who handcuffs his ex-wife to a wall may have some mental health issues.

In my mind, the slim silver lining here is that Ms. Tyler is a lawyer.  I suspect that Ms. Tyler’s legal training will help her wade more knowledgeably through this mess.  Now that Tyler is free from Tuesday’s hostage situation, I hope she and her lawyer are successful in achieving yet another degree of separation from Shenkman.