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Savannah GA Divorce Lawyer – Divorce Puts Light on United Technologies Jet Use

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Divorce Puts Light on United Technologies Jet Use

By JOHN EMSHWILLER and DIONNE SEARCEY

A divorce proceeding involving a top official at United Technologies Corp. has uncovered potentially embarrassing records showing he made extensive personal use of company aircraft.

Associated Press
United Technologies said George David had authorized a “handful of flights by unescorted guests” on company aircraft. It said he had reimbursed the company for those flights, but the company declined to provide further details. Above, Mr. David arrives for divorce proceedings in Hartford in March.
Over the past seven years, George David, United Technologies’ chairman and former chief executive, and his guests have used corporate planes and helicopters for personal travel on several hundred separate flights, company records show.

Among other things, the records show that on about a dozen occasions, Mr. David allowed guests to travel on board without him, including to join him on vacation — which he said in court was “normally not” permitted under company policy.

In response to questions from the Journal, United Technologies said Mr. David had authorized a “handful of flights by unescorted guests” on company aircraft. It said Mr. David had reimbursed the company for those flights, but declined to provide further details, such as when the reimbursements were made.

Earlier, a United Technologies official had said the company couldn’t accept reimbursement from executives because of certain Federal Aviation Administration rules. In a written statement Monday, the official said the reimbursements were “FAA-compliant,” but didn’t elaborate.

The records of the 67-year-old Mr. David’s personal air travel from 2002 to 2008, which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, became available as a result of a divorce battle between Mr. David and his wife, Marie Douglas-David, in a Connecticut court. Ms. Douglas-David, 37, is seeking tens of millions of dollars from Mr. David.

Mr. David stepped down as CEO in April 2008 after 15 years in the top job at United Technologies, which makes Sikorsky helicopters, Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney airplane engines. During his tenure, annual earnings soared from $585 million in 1994 to $4.69 billion last year, and the company’s stock-market value grew some 12-fold to $75 billion.

United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., said company policy required Mr. David, as well as CEO Louis Chenevert, to use company aircraft for personal flying for security reasons. The company estimated that more than 80% of Mr. David’s flight time on corporate aircraft was for business travel. “Information about his flight itineraries, exchanged in the litigation, has been disclosed outside the courtroom in an obvious attempt to embarrass him,” the company said in a statement.

Like many companies, United Technologies doesn’t charge its executives for personal travel on corporate aircraft. It uses a formula to estimate the cost of a given trip and adds that amount as income when reporting the executive’s compensation to the Internal Revenue Service. The taxes on this imputed income are often much lower than the cost of chartering a private plane.

Through a United Technologies spokesman, Mr. David declined to be interviewed.

Personal use of company jets is a major issue for some shareholder activists and government officials seeking to clamp down on executive perks. The Securities and Exchange Commission began several years ago to press companies to be more open about the cost of executives’ personal travel. Proxy filings, including those by United Technologies, routinely estimate this cost.

Some companies, including Sears Holdings Corp. and Ford Motor Co., have begun selling their corporate aircraft.

Associated Press
The records of George David’s personal air travel became available as a result of a divorce battle between Mr. David and his wife, Marie Douglas-David. Above, Ms. Douglas-David leaves a Hartford court after the first day of proceedings in divorce trial on March 18.
Records show Mr. David’s travels ranged from international flights to a helicopter ride in the Hamptons on New York’s Long Island. In a statement, United Technologies said “selective references have been made to certain flights…in an attempt to devalue” Mr. David’s record.

In March 20 court testimony as part of his divorce case, Mr. David was asked by one of his wife’s lawyers whether flying unescorted guests was allowed under company travel policy. “Normally not,” Mr. David said.

The question arose in connection with Mr. David’s use of a company jet to fly unescorted guests to Italy to join him and his wife on a yachting vacation in 2005.

The records of Mr. David’s personal travel list about 900 flights, or the equivalent of about 450 round trips, though some of the flights were legs of the same journey.

The majority of Mr. David’s personal flights involved helicopters. About a quarter of them involved jet travel, with destinations that ranged from Paris and Buenos Aires to San Diego and Augusta, Ga.

A review of SEC filings of Fortune 100 companies by Equilar Inc., an executive-compensation research firm, shows that the median reported value of a chief executive’s personal travel was $141,477 last year. For 2008, United Technologies reported Mr. David’s personal travel at $309,865 and that of Mr. Chenevert, the current CEO, at $93,435.

United Technologies proxy statements show Mr. David’s personal travel costs have declined from a 2006 level of $612,303.

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admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Lawyer jailed 14 years for court divorce contempt is freed

By JOANN LOVIGLIO

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania attorney who was released from prison Friday after serving the longest imprisonment on a civil contempt charge in U.S. history said judges have too much discretion in cases like his.
“If I had been convicted of murder in the third degree in Pennsylvania, I would have been out in half the time I was in jail,” H. Beatty Chadwick said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
A judge ordered Chadwick’s release from a county prison in suburban Philadelphia more than 14 years after he was jailed for refusing to turn over millions of dollars in a bitter divorce battle. The case prompted dozens of appeals to county, state and federal courts, twice reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chadwick, 73, said he will stay with his 41-year-old son, Bill, for now. He said he plans to find a job, though he was not sure what sort of work he would do.
“I have to spend a little time thinking about that and seeing how I can best use my skills and talents,” Chadwick said, speaking from the office of his lawyer, Michael Malloy. He said he was not sure if he would return to practicing law; he is eligible to apply for his law license when a five-year suspension ends next year.
Chadwick was jailed in April 1995, accused of hiding $2.5 million from his ex-wife during divorce proceedings. Chadwick maintained he lost the money in bad investments. In 2006, before the economic downturn, experts estimated the money would be worth more than $8 million.
After repeated attempts to have himself freed, Chadwick’s request was granted by Delaware County Judge Joseph Cronin, who determined his continued incarceration had lost its coercive effect and would not result in him turning over the money.
In court documents ordering the release, Cronin said he agreed with previous court rulings that Chadwick “had the ability to comply with the court order … but that he had willfully refused to do so.”
But Chadwick’s continued imprisonment would be legal only if it were likely that he would ultimately comply with the order. The judge said that there was little chance of that, and Chadwick should be released.
Chadwick insisted Friday that he was unable to pay the money and said the law should be written so people in his situation can have a jury decide if they are capable of complying with court orders. He said there also ought to be time limits on jailing people for contempt, adding that there is an 18-month limit in the federal courts for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
“There’s no question about whether they’re able to do it — everybody’s able to testify. But in my case, of course, there’s a question: Was I able?” he said.
Chadwick and the former Barbara Jean “Bobbie” Crowther married in 1977 and lived in Philadelphia’s wealthy Main Line suburbs. She filed for divorce in 1992.
Bobbie Chadwick, now known as Bobbie Applegate, declined to comment when reached by telephone at her home in Maine on Friday.
Applegate’s attorney, Albert Momjian, said it was the longest incarceration on a civil contempt case in U.S. history. He said he understood and respected the judge’s decision but was still disappointed.
“Here’s a guy who thumbed his nose at a court order for 14 years,” Momjian said of Chadwick. “There should be some kind of sanctions for doing that.”
Momjian said he was discussing with his client options in pursuing the divorce settlement. He also was seeking a court order requiring Chadwick to wear an electronic monitoring device and barring him from getting a passport.
“My contention is that he’s going to take off very quickly,” Momjian said. “He’s not going to stick around.”
A one-time corporate lawyer, Chadwick has battled non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in prison.

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admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Man jailed in divorce free after 14 yrs.

By WILLIAM BENDER
Philadelphia Daily News
benderw@phillynews.com 215-854-5255

H. Beatty Chadwick is either the most hardheaded lawyer in America or a poor sap who lost 14 years of his life to a money-grubbing ex-wife and cold-hearted judges.

Either way, at 3:08 p.m. yesterday the Main Line attorney who had been imprisoned since 1995 on a contempt charge walked out of the George W. Hill Correctional Facility a free man.

Chadwick, 73, who is believed to have set a U.S. record for time served in a civil-contempt case, was jailed during divorce proceedings for allegedly stashing $2.5 million in overseas accounts – out of the reach of his wife and her lawyers.

While fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma in prison, he has steadfastly maintained that he lost the cash in a bad investment. Judges repeatedly denied his request to be freed, until yesterday, when Delaware County President Judge Joseph Cronin approved his release.

“He’s not bitter, he’s happy to be out,” said Chadwick’s attorney, Michael Malloy. “He’s a very low-key, even tempered guy.”

“I’ve never seen him lose his temper. I’ve never seem him upset.”

Chadwick’s plans were to go home to be with his son, Malloy said.

Many still believe that Chadwick – reportedly a control freak who would ration his spouse’s toilet-paper usage and designate specific times for sex – is a stubborn liar who still has the money.

“This guy is so off-the-wall that he’s never going to change his mind,” said Albert Momjian, attorney for Barbara Applegate, Chadwick’s ex-wife. “If he doesn’t have access to the money, how does he pay all these lawyers?”

About 35 prison staffers gathered yesterday – some crying and hugging Chadwick – to say goodbye to the “model inmate” who had worked in the law library and forged friendships with everyone from guards to senior administrators, said prison Superintendent John Reilly.

“He’s done more time than maybe the majority of people convicted of homicide do,” said Reilly, a former prosecutor. “What person in his right mind is going to flaunt the authority of the court and say, ‘I’m going to spend the rest of my life in jail?’ People just aren’t made that way.”

Yet, Reilly concedes, he and most other observers simply don’t know whether Chadwick is still hiding his fortune.

“To me, he’s an enigma,” he said. “I can’t get a read on the guy.” *

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:01:00 +0000

Still tipping the scales in Carolina
By Myron Pitts

Battle of the Bulge: States packing on pounds
North Carolina retains its “big boy” status in the new rankings on obesity.

We’re tipping the scales as 12th-fattest state, according to a report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Never ones to sit still, unless there’s a TV around, we jumped four places since last year.

Twenty-eight percent of Tar Heel adults and 33.5 percent of children qualify as obese, which means they’re carrying enough weight to cause serious health problems.

We’re joined by our southern cousins. Mississippi is No. 1, again. Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana and Arkansas are all in the Top 10. Missouri and Georgia are just behind North Carolina.

I’m bummed.

I held high hopes the Yankee transplants who have flooded the state would help us out here. (In the rankings, the Slim Jim northeast states are crowded near the bottom.)

I thought that the Yanks would come bearing better diets, full of non-fried foods, and would bring the state’s fat average down. Therefore, natives like myself could continue eating what we want. This was to be the trade-off for having to put up with the newer arrivals’ ignorance of grits and their frou-frou diets and unfathomable preference for unsweetened tea.

But clearly that’s not working, at least not here.

Virginia, on the other hand, with its North-South split between actual southerners and D.C.-area people, is distancing itself from its southern cousins. The former capital of the South ranks 38th in fatness.

Meanwhile, the tough economic times have exacerbated our state’s weight problem, says Karen McLeod, the health promotions coordinator of the Cumberland County Health Department.

“A lot of times when you have less money, you aren’t able to buy the healthier foods,” she said.

Another study suggests a way out of our jam.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that people tend to put on the pounds after they get married. A married or cohabitating person is twice as likely to be obese as a single person.

Consider that North Carolina, in terms of divorce rates, is at the other end of the state rankings, consistently coming in around 32nd.

In other words: Unlike the governor of our neighboring state to the south, we stick with the one we’ve got.

Or, as the old players say after a couple of brutal rounds in divorce court: “It’s cheaper to keep her.”

(I guess it’s cheaper to keep him, too, but that doesn’t rhyme as well.)

Maybe we also can add that “it’s thinner to drop him or her.”

But hoping people break up strikes me as an unsavory way of dealing with our weight issues.

How about a more holy approach?

Among county programs to fight obesity is one that gives seed money for churches to grow a nutrition program, McLeod said.

That one holds promise, in my opinion.

We have lots of buffets around here, but many more churches, about one per corner. There are so many people getting saved around here, it’s not even funny.

We’ve got people running to the Lord. If we can get them running the Lord, that would be just gravy.

No, not gravy. A low-fat gravy substitute.

Columnist Myron B. Pitts can be reached at pittsm@fayobserver.com or 486-3559.
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admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:59:00 +0000

The Stripper, The Pizza Boy and The Bondage Bungalow

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/06/crimesider/entry5136850.shtml

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CBS/AP) A married dad of two; a remote mountain cabin; a stripper tied up on the couch – what could possibly go wrong? Everything, if you are David Jansen, 46, of Snellville, Ga.

What may have started off as a romantic rendezvous, became anything but.

When Jansen ordered a pizza and the deliveryman was greeted with a scene either made in hell or made in Hollywood.

Did the showgirl tied-up on the couch have a penchant for bondage or was she being raped?

The deliveryman says she silently begged him to “please call 911.” So 32-year-old Chris Turner called the police from a nearby home. Jansen was promptly arrested and charged with rape.

At first the story was a tale of a quick-thinking deliveryman’s heroism. But now, prosecutors aren’t sure what happened and they have dropped all charges in the case. Jansen has claimed that the May 26 incident was consensual.

“It’s hard to look inside somebody’s brain to see if all this was contrived between two parties or if she really was kidnapped and raped,” Sevier County Assistant District Attorney Steven Hawkins told The Associated Press. “Who can tell?”

Jansen, whose wife filed for divorce after his arrest, wasn’t in the courtroom in Sevierville.

VIDEO COURTESY OF CBS AFFILIATE WVLT

“This has been a difficult time for Mr. Jansen and he is happy to have this part of the ordeal behind him,” Jansen’s attorney Don Bosch said. Jansen has not decided whether to take legal action against the woman or anyone else involved in his arrest, Bosch said.

Tennessee authorities learned, after Jansen’s arrest, that the 24-year-old Atlanta woman who accused him had been convicted and sentenced to probation for lying to Georgia police about being attacked in 2005 and 2006.

Hawkins said there were no plans to charge her in Tennessee.

“She insisted it did happen and there is a lot of evidence that it did happen,” said Hawkins, who talked to the woman by telephone Thursday.

The woman’s attorney, Alan Begner of Atlanta, said Hawkins “did not ask us what we thought about” dismissing the charges, but he said he understood the burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

However, Begner noted the woman had not recanted her story. She did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment Thursday, and a phone call to the club she worked at rang unanswered.

The woman told police she knew Jansen as a customer at a restaurant and strip club she worked at in Atlanta. She claimed he lured her into his car, tied her up, drove to Gatlinburg and raped her. Police found rope and ripped clothing in the cabin.

Turner discovered her bound on the couch while making a delivery to a remote rental cabin near Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains. After Jansen signed his credit card slip, Turner rushed to another cabin and called police. Jansen was arrested, and the woman was taken to a hospital.

She later told Turner she feared she would have been killed if not for him.

Bosch later found witnesses and convenience store surveillance videos that suggested the woman had chances to escape or call for help. And a polygraph test indicated Jansen was truthful when he told investigators that the sex was consensual, and that the kidnapping was part of a bondage fantasy.

While the case may not have been what it seemed, Hawkins said that takes nothing away from the deliveryman’s actions.

“I think he saw what appeared to him based on all the evidence to be a kidnapping and he did the right thing. I don’t think this diminished what he did a bit. Nor does it diminish what the sheriff’s department did,” he said.

“Everybody did what they felt was right based on everything right then.”

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Savannah GA Divorce Lawyer – A jury in a divorce case? Yes, in Georgia

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:55:00 +0000

A jury in a divorce case? Yes, in Georgia

By Péralte C. Paul

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, July 03, 2009

The road to wedded bliss usually ends in the couple declaring their undying love before a judge or, in a religious setting, a man — or woman — of the cloth.

In Georgia, the exit ramp to Splitsville brings the now-not-so-happy couple before a judge, too. However, a quirky but little-used right of divorce law in the Peach State allows for a jury of 12 strangers to help decide most aspects of the case.

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In fact, Georgia and Texas are the only states where couples seeking to dissolve a marriage have the right to divorce by jury. (New York juries can’t try such cases but can be called to decide if couples meet the state criteria for divorce.)

A lot more common in the 1970s when Georgia judges were prone to giving lifetime alimony in divorce cases — which the paying ex-spouse usually would contest — it’s a rare occurrence now. They’re also more expensive because preparing for a jury requires a lot more prep work and support materials used to explain various concepts to them that lawyers don’t need to do when arguing a divorce case solely before a judge.

“It is time-consuming and expensive,” said Stephen A. Land, an Atlanta attorney and former Fulton County assistant district attorney. “Most lawyers charge from $300 to $600 an hour. A jury trial could add two extra days and at seven hours a day, two extra days of trial is $5,000.”

There’s also court costs, which include paying jurors for their time.

But despite periodic attempts to scrap it from the Georgia code — including as recently as 2007 — those initiatives have always failed because attorneys say it’s a valuable tool in their arsenal of legal strategies.

So it’s not likely to go away anytime soon, lawyers say, because they and their battling clients have an advantage in keeping that right though it’s often used only as a last resort.

“I really think the jury trial is a basic right for all litigants, and it helps ensure fairness and the right to have the community help when spouses just cannot do it themselves,” said Randall M. Kessler, a family law attorney and founding partner of Kessler, Schwarz & Solomiany in Atlanta.

“It is also perhaps the very best way to ensure that people try their best to settle out of court, since a jury trial is always a risk, for both sides, no matter what the facts are.”

Plus, couples aren’t keen on having details of their private lives displayed before a dozen strangers.

“I’ve had more than one juror on a divorce case say to me afterward, that they would rather die than have that paraded in front of everybody,” Land said.

Kessler recounted a recent case where his client and her prominent doctor husband couldn’t come to an acceptable settlement agreement going back and forth for a year. Kessler’s client asked for a jury trial.

But the day before the trial was to start, Kessler said the husband and his attorney wanted to settle.

“The judge let us stay in the courthouse, and we were there until 3:30 a.m.,” Kessler said. “I think it hit him that everything he expressed to the world was not the side the jury was going to see.”

Still, some, like Terry Thorp of Roswell, believe that a jury of 12 yields a more just result than going up before a judge alone.

Thorp, who owns a drywall and installation business in Woodstock, said he tried to settle with his wife of five years, but the two could not come to an acceptable agreement. They went before a mediator — still no solution.

He opted for a jury trial following a preliminary hearing where he was ordered to pay temporary alimony. Thorp said he decided that because he didn’t believe he was given a full chance to tell his side of the story.

“To give everybody a fair chance, you need to have a trial,” said Thorp, who received his divorce in 2005. “If you go before a judge and the judge has certain pet peeves and you do something they don’t like, you never know. It’s very difficult to let one person make a decision over your life.”

Georgia divorce juries can decide alimony, child support and distribution of assets and debt. Custody of the children, though, is only determined by the judge. Texas has the reverse with juries deciding custody and visitation rights, and the judge determining the division of assets. Texas juries also can hear cases where one parent seeks to terminate the parental rights of another or if a one is trying to prove paternity.

Though the laws differs in both states on what juries can decide, lawyers cite the same benefit: They can serve as a hedge against bias from the bench.

“You might have a rogue judge who has a reputation for not awarding much alimony,” Kessler said.

Lawyers add that because Georgia also is a solid Bible Belt state, certain divorce triggers, such as infidelity, might not resonate as much with a judge who’s heard hundreds of cases, but might with a couple of jurors who might find adultery morally reprehensible. Conversely, it might bring sympathy from a juror for the cheating spouse if the juror has done the same thing.

“It can be used as a safeguard rather than having one person making a decision about it,” said Wilbur Warner an Atlanta divorce attorney and partner in Warner, Mayoue, Bates & Nolen. “With a jury, at least, it’s a composite of the baggage and issues and it’s not one person deciding.”

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admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Child Custody Lawyer Savannah Georgia – Divorce Attorney

Do we need an attorney in a custody case?

If you and your spouse can’t agree on the terms of custody, you probably both need attorneys. Additionally, in certain cases, the court may appoint an attorney, or guardian ad litem, to
represent your child.

What are custody seminars and do we have to go to one?

Custody seminars are classes designed to help the parents sort out the issues they are going to face regarding their child or children. They are required by the courts in certain counties for all divorces involving children under the age of 18.

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admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:10:00 +0000

Savannah GA Child Custody Lawyer – Attorney

Who will get custody of our children?

Georgia law does not favor the mother or the father and either or both may be given custody of a child. Either your attorneys or the judge will work out a custody plan for the children. The goal of the plan will be the best interests of each child. Until the plan is worked out, the couple usually shares custody, often subject to rules laid out in a temporary plan. A child of 14 or older usually is allowed to choose which parent to live with. Younger children may speak to the judge, but the judge may also consider a variety of other factors before deciding where to place the child or children. The ability of each parent to care for the child or children will be a key factor in determining who will get primary custody.

If the attorneys are able to work out a custody agreement, the judge will have to approve it. The judge may make changes to the plan if he or she deems that would be better for the child.
Grandparents or other relatives may seek custody of a child, but the law tends to favor the parents first and other relatives may have to show that the parents are actually harming the child in order to get custody.

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admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Savannha GA Divorce Lawyer-

What if my spouse has abused our children?

You should call the police if you suspect your children have been abused by anyone, including your spouse. Child abuse is a crime. Your children’s safety and well-being is foremost and you can be held legally responsible if you allow your children to be abused. Police officers can help you protect your children, and may refer you to social service programs that can help. Additionally, they can provide documentation of the abuse allegation that your attorney or social worker will need to help you and the children going forward.
If you fear for your children’s safety, social service agencies can also help you.

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Savannah GA Divorce Lawyer – Savannah Georgia Uncontested Divorce Attorney – Hulk Hogan Divorce Saga

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Brooke in middle of War of the Hogans
BY MIKE MOONEYHAM (CONTACT)
Sunday, June 7, 2009

Is there any end in sight to the dysfunctional Hulk Hogan family saga?

It’s one nasty turn after another, and barely a day seems to go by without one of the family members spewing venom in the media.

One might have hoped that the 2007 car accident involving son Nick, which left friend John Graziano in a permanent vegetative state and the now 18-year-old with an eight-month prison term, would have had a sobering, humbling effect on the Hogan family. Perhaps some good could have come out of such tragedy. Valuable lessons could have been learned.

Life is fragile. Fences can be mended. Families should stick together.

If anything, though, the War of the Hogans has only intensified.

And now 21-year-old daughter Brooke Hogan, whose second season of “Brooke Knows Best” premieres today on VH1, seems to be in the line of fire as her parents’ acrimonious divorce battle plays out before the public, on TV and in the tabloids.

The latest coming out of the Hogan camp is from the Hulkster in response to his estranged wife’s charges that their daughter’s behavior doesn’t match the All-American girl image Hogan has tried to create.

Linda Hogan (Bollea) claimed that Hulk (Terry Bollea) was rolling and smoking joints with Brooke’s boyfriend, rapper Staxx, at her recording sessions. Hogan vehemently denied the allegations, and said that Linda was “lost” and “needs help.”

“Brooke is a clean-cut girl. She’s very open and honest,” Hulk proclaimed in the current issue of Life & Style magazine. “Brooke can’t have a relationship with her mother like this.”

Provided
Hulk and Linda Hogan during happier times.
Hogan, 55, also refuted Linda’s allegations of drug use, and said it’s his 49-year-old, soon-to-be-ex-wife who is engaging in illegal drugs with her 20-year-old “boy toy” Charlie Hill. He even offered to take a legally supervised drug test if Linda would do the same.

“If Linda says she’ll take a drug test, I say bring it, brother. It needs to be done, and she’ll fail it.”

Linda answered the challenge by voluntarily taking tests that came out negative.

“Linda Hogan is clean, clean, clean,” publicist Gary Smith reported last week. He said she took a full medical exam and tested negative for everything including marijuana, cocaine, speed, amphetamines and opiates.

“Linda does not do drugs and never accused her daughter of doing drugs either,” said Smith. “Now the truth is in black and white; all Linda wants is an apology from both of them.”

Brooke told US magazine last week that she tried calling her mother, but to no avail.

“I actually dialed her phone … but she didn’t answer. I love her no matter what. I’ll forgive her and I’ll pray for her, but I don’t think I can be around her anymore. Ever. She may as well have disowned me. She did in my heart.”

Brooke also said on Howard Stern’s Sirius satellite radio show Wednesday that she can’t say for sure that her mom has done drugs, but that something isn’t right.

“Do I have a gut feeling that she has something to come clean about? Yes,” she said. “But that’s just my gut.”

Smith issued a release claiming Brooke “continues to spew lies on behalf of her father’s lame attempt to distance himself from the reality that he is no different from the homicidal O.J. Simpson.” If Brooke continues, the rep added in an unintentionally humorous statement, “Charlie (Linda’s boyfriend) will be forced to put aside his paramedic/firefighting career path and release an album called Redemption which will easily surpass any of Brooke’s records sales.”

Smith, in the letter to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, also accused Brooke of fabricating claims or misrepresenting the facts about her breast augmentations, her relationship with Staxx and comments about Hill.

AP
Hulk Hogan with daughter Brooke.
“She only judges Charlie because of his long hair and age. Linda doesn’t judge … Brooke is Hulk’s only remaining mouthpiece and a pawn in his game of control,” said Smith.

“Brooke Hogan has spoken out in support of her father only because of her mother’s repeated fabricated attacks on him,” replied a Hogan attorney. “She is in the unique position of knowing both parties in this litigation and she has only spoken as to what she knows to be the truth based upon her personal experience with each.”

Hogan added that he believes his daughter is more of an adult than her mother.

“I hope one day Linda will grow up and be an adult like Brooke is,” he said. “Linda has to reach to her level. One day, maybe.”

Hogan’s attorney says a mother-daughter relationship appears unlikely at this time because Linda “continues to attempt to throw her family under the bus to gain publicity.”

Linda filed for divorce just a month after the last episode of their popular reality show aired. Hogan later said he was surprised that his wife wanted to end their 24-year marriage, even though the two had visited a marriage counselor on their VHI show.

Hogan told People magazine last year that the couple had experienced marital difficulties for nearly a decade, and that “the reality show just amplified the problems.”

Provided
Jim Cornette’s new book is a great read for fans of the Midnight Express era.
- The highly anticipated Jim Cornette book is out, and it’s a must for any serious wrestling fan’s collection.

Don’t expect a behind-the-scenes look at Cornette’s life. “The Midnight Express 25th Anniversary Scrapbook” is not an autobiography, nor is it advertised as such, but it is a fascinating look at one of the greatest managers and tag teams in wrestling history, as told by one of the smartest and funniest guys in the business.

The full-color book is detailed and accurate, with results, clippings, photos and even payoff receipts, along with insightful recollections from Cornette.

The book is available at www.jimcornette.com.

>
Charlotte Observer
NASCAR driver Joey Logano (left) receives a hug from Ric Flair after Logano was voted the fan favorite slot for the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte on May 16. Flair served as honorary race director.
- Ric Flair may be 60 years old. He may be officially retired. Yet he still found himself in a familiar position last week — the main event of Monday Night Raw. And he more than held his own in a street fight with Randy Orton.

Flair got the better of Orton during a show-finishing brawl that started in the parking lot, moved to the backstage area and ended up inside a cage in the ring. Orton got last-minute help from cronies Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, however, and ended up knocking out the Nature Boy with his trademark stiff kick to the cranium.

Flair, who suffered a head laceration, also badly cut his hand during the backstage segment and had to get 12 stitches.

Flair, bloodied and bruised, was pleased with the performance.

“It was great,” he said the next day. “But I’m sore as hell.”

- Maverick (Dakota) Darsow was among several developmental performers released by WWE last week.

Darsow is the son of former pro star Barry Darsow (Krusher Khruschev, Demolition Smash, Repo Man).
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