In what promises to be a very messy divorce, Matos and James McGreevey's divorce trial, which starts Tuesday, has the makings of a soap opera. Orgies, extramarital affairs and the revelations, which forced McGreevey to resign in 2004.
In 2006, McGreevey revealed during an interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey that he was having an affair with another man while his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their child, but according to recent reports, the divorce trial will reveal allegations of three way sexual orgies and that is just what the judge calls, "the tip of the iceberg".
The revelation about the orgies came out in pretrial hearings and there is a legal argument where Matos McGreevey is trying to get testimony barred from the trial proceedings from an ex-campaign aide, Teddy Pedersen, who publicly claims to have been involved in three-way sexual encounters with both of the McGreeveys.
"Plaintiff will testify at trial that he needed to have a disrobed male present in the room with them" in order for him to become physically aroused, McGreevey lawyer Stephen Haller wrote in recently released court papers. "This tends to prove that plaintiff was at least bisexual, a fact which should have been obvious to defendant prior to the marriage."
John Post, who represents Matos McGreevey, wants to bar Pedersen's testimony, which he says is "irrelevant" and "inflammatory." Even if it's true, which Post doubts in court papers, he said it proves only that the McGreeveys engaged in heterosexual activity.
James McGreevey's lawyers want to squelch Matos McGreevey's report from an accountant that also estimated that the former governor turned seminarian should be making $1,465,000 a year -- not the estimated $50,000 for 2008.
Legal experts are already categorizing this pending divorce proceeding as one of the top 10 worst cases. One matrimonial lawyer who operates the New Jersey Family Law blog, Charles Abut, says, "I'm not going to tell you this is going to be the worst case ever in the history of New Jersey divorces. Give me the your top 10 worst,' this one is going to appear on everyone's list."
Not only are the couple arguing of custody of their daughter, but Matos McGreevey is also insisting on $605,999 in damages based on the lifestyle she should have enjoyed as the Governors wife, which would have included housekeepers and living the Governors mansion, access to a state police helicopter and a state-owned beach house, among other perks.
Matos claims she was "duped" into marriage by a closeted gay man, therefore she was defrauded.
According to papers filed in Union County Superior Court last week, Michael Ascher, one of James McGreevey's lawyers asserts that misrepresentation and concealment of sexual preference did not constitute fraud since there was a marriage between a man and a woman and the birth of a child, and they continued to state, "Our contention is that the purpose of marriage -- living together, having a child, having companionship -- were all fulfilled. If the purpose of the marriage has been fulfilled, there can be no fraud. She has an accountant who has created a fantastic claim of lifestyle entitlement, and all based on pure supposition."
The case is being divided into three categories. Part one, which will be private and closed to the public, will deal with the custody of the couple's daughter. Part two will be the division of their assets and part three, which people are already saying will be worse than a soap opera will deal with James McGreevey's homosexuality and what Matos McGreevey knew or didn't know and if she did not know, whether it constituted fraud in the eyes of the law.
It all begins in earnest tomorrow and since the soap opera name "As The World Turns" is already taken, perhaps we should dub this one, "As The Stomach Turns".
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