Okay, let me get this straight. The guy pictured, John Goodman, 48, just ADOPTED his girlfriend, Heather Hutchins, 42.... Why not marry her you ask? Well, I'm not sure either but it must have something to do with money, as always. Seems Goodman, a poor little rich boy who inherited his daddy's money and opened Palm Beach's International Polo Club, got drunk one evening (twice the legal limit) and drove home in his Bentley convertible. He ran a stop sign and broadsided college graduate Scott Wilson, knocking him into a nearby canal, where he drowned. Then he drove off...
Wilson's family is now suing Goodman for DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash. He could spend up to 30 years in prison if found guilty. Goodman's father, Harold Goodman, built a fortune from a heating and air conditioning manufacturing business, which sold in 2004 for $1.4 billion. Circuit judges had previous ruled that the $200 million dollar trust funds set up for his two biological children were off-limits in the lawsuit. The adoption papers state that Hutchins, now a legal child of Goodman, is immediately entitled to at least a third of his trust. Wilson's attorney states that Goodman is attempting to use the adoption to shield his assets. The adoption attorney agreed, saying, "Unless you intend to create the parent-child relationship, you are violating the letter of the law." Goodman's attorney says, "It has nothing to do with the lawsuit currently pending against him." Ummhmmm...
There must be a REALLY good reason why this schmuck would adopt his girlfriend rather than marry her. And doesn't it, then, get into other laws, like incest??
And isn't this adoption scheme making things worse for Goodman? I suspect that this has alienated him from friends and even family since no one would find this acceptable morally or socially. And, if I were on the jury, I would be even more judgmental of someone who would do this.
It may be legal, but it was his kiss of death...
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