A man who drugged his wife and sexually assaulted her does not seem like a fit parent who could be trusted with primary child custody. Luckily for an out-of-state man, both a jury and a family court judge ruled that those allegations were nothing but empty lies perpetuated by his wife.
After it was discovered that the woman’s story was a lie that garnered the man criminal charges, the woman was dealt with accordingly in divorce court. Her husband, who is a doctor, had to spend substantial money fighting off the criminal charges that came with the false claims of drugging and assault. The man’s medical license was even suspended. He faced a lifetime in jail, but a jury acquitted him on the charges.
He came out on the favorable side of things in the divorce case, though, as a judge awarded him primary custody of the couple’s three children. The man was happy with the arrangement and said he is eager to put the matter behind him so that he can eliminate the drama from the lives of his children, who are all under the age of 14.
The man was also granted primary residential responsibility of the children. The woman will still get the chance to spend time with the children, but the judge provided the couple with a visitation schedule in case they could not come to an agreement on one themselves.
The man was also rewarded in the property division phase of the divorce, receiving $1,112,892.50 in assets and $1,301,040 in debt. This was compared to the $348,786.50 in assets and $712,641 in debt the woman received. The man was also given the family home.
In this case, the family court judge weighed the factors and determined the man was a fitter parent for the children. The judge even stated that he based a lot of his decision on the fact the woman purported a serious lie, showing that she might not be an ideal parent for the kids.
Source: The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, “Fargo surgeon Jon Norberg awarded custody of children, house in divorce case,” March 15, 2013