Re: Online Saga
.... continued from posts #1, 8, 17, 46, 68, 88, 128, 159, 175, 193, 210, 223 , 237 & 257
Ali’s attorney came out from the chamber and told Ali that plaintiff’s attorney had suggested fifty-fifty legal and physical custody of their child. And Judge was supportive of that settlement as well. He asked Ali if that was acceptable to him then he could agree to this settlement? Ali didn’t seem to have any other choice so he accepted it. He just wanted to see his daughter. If Ali’s own attorney had been present there, he would have not settled for anything less than the recommendation of family court’s counselor. Judge then announced his decision to lift restraining orders off of Ali, granted fifty-fifty joint custody to both parents and enforced some civil restraining orders on both parents to be decent to each other and not to take the child out of the state without court’s order or other parent’s permission. They were asked to return to court in to months for further evaluation. Ali was very excited to be able to finally see his daughter after seven long weeks. Waheeda hugged Ali while leaving the courtroom and Irrum started screaming loudly for whatever reason. She felt like a looser while Ali considered it to be a fair judgment.
Ali was able to get his daughter the same evening for his week. Ali’s mother in the meantime was looking for his prospect wife in Pakistan. She had short listed three girls within the family and asked Ali to pick any out of those three. Ali told her to take it easy, as he was not ready for another marriage so soon. But his mother was bugging him every time he had called home. She insisted Ali to choose one just for the engagement sake and he could have taken his time to do the marriage after his divorce was finalized. Ali kept refusing. There was tough battle going in the court. Both attorneys were producing something new every week. Ali was busy providing all the information his attorney needed. Things were getting ugly as Irrum was coming up with some new accusation every time.
Ali would enjoy the week with his daughter but then would get depressed the other week when he did not have her. That is the week when he would chat and talk with Rohi. She was getting closer to Ali every day that was passing. She would stand on the payphone for hours to talk to him from her school. Ali visited Rohi almost every month for one day. Sometimes he even returned the same day after spending few hours with her. He just enjoyed the love and response he was getting from Rohi. He was however firm on his limits with her and never felt weak for her. They would just go out for lunch to some fine restaurant or just sit and talk while holding hands of each other. Rohi wore hijab in public but removed it when inside the room with him. He respected her more every time he would come back after seeing her. One day she called Ali and told him that she was in trouble. She told him that her brother who was suspicious of her had set some spy program on her laptop and recorded all the intimate chat she had done with Ali. Her brother then showed that to her parents that made her so embarrassed and ashamed. Her father told her to call Ali to ask him to bring her ticket and to take her with him unless she was willing to totally cut off with him. Irrum promised her parents that she would not contact him anymore. Ali felt bad for her and encouraged her to stop talking to him. She told Ali that nothing in the world could stop her from contacting him. She persistently called him on the phone from her school however she stopped chatting with him from home. She was careful when she chatted with him even from school.
Waheeda had two other daughters who came to visit their mom and stayed at Ali’s house. Ali planned a trip to drive everybody to Vancouver. They asked if Ayesha could also come along. Ali told them that it was only possible if Irrum gave permission to do so. They called their sister and asked her if they could take Ayesha to Vancouver with them. She said that she had no problem with it. Ali, Ayesha, Waheeda and her both daughters all went to Vancouver. They stayed there for three nights. And when they arrived back, another shock was waiting for Ali. There was a note at the door from a police officer to be contacted as soon as possible. Ali called the police officer who asked him to come to the police station for an interview in regard to the matter that he had violated court orders by taking his daughter to Vancouver. Ali right away called his attorney and told him what happened. Attorney asked Ali if he had taken a written permission from Irrum? Ali told him that it was only a verbal talk that took place between Irrum and her sisters. The attorney got mad at Ali and told him not to go to the police station alone unless he wanted to be arrested. The attorney asked Ali to tell the police officer to call him. Ali asked the police officer to call his attorney but the police office was not willing to do so. He told Ali that he needed to see him not his attorney. Then Ali’s attorney called the police officer and scheduled to meet him for Ali’s interview at the police station the next day. The attorney asked Ali to come meet him at the police station and also to bring Irrum’s sisters along. His sister-in-law had to fly back to Florida the same day but they wrote their witness note for the police officer. They were so shocked at the devilish act that their sister had done. They called her and showed their dislike to her before they left. Ali took Waheeda and Ayesha along to the police station the next day. During the interview, Ali’s attorney made it clear to the police officer that Ali had taken permission from Irrum and she was only making this case to use against Ali. After talking to Irrum’s mom and reading note of her sisters, police officer was able to see the picture. The Case was dropped right there and it didn’t even make it to the DA, district attorney. Ali was about $1500 lighter in reference to his attorney fees for the day. So it turned out to be a costly trip to Vancouver for Ali.
Before their follow-up court date, Ali was asked to meet the family court services counselor once again. The counselor was surprised to find out that the judge wasn’t able to reach her during the previous hearing. She had given her cellular phone number to Irrum’s attorney in case judge needed to get in touch with her. But Irrum’s attorney never mentioned about it when judge was unable to reach the counselor at her office phone. The counselor asked Ali how their custody arrangement was working out? Ali told her that it was going fine. So she wrote her recommendation to continue with fifty-fifty custody this time. The judge adopted her recommendation this time and ordered them to continue with their current custody settlement.
Irrum then filed a motion for child support. Ali’s attorney responded to that motion very cleverly. He took Irrum’s deposition and literally made her to cry. This was August of 2002 and deposition was being taken at the attorney’s office in front of a court recorder. Irrum’s attorney was also present there next to Irrum. Ali sat next to his attorney. The attorney asked Irrum if she was really not aware of Ali’s financial matters? She had previously mentioned in some papers that Ali was always hiding his money and she never knew how much money he had. The attorney asked her if she was a joint owner of his bank account and if she had access to see what was in the account. She said that she was a joint owner but never knew about the health of the account. The attorney then asked if she ever wrote any checks from that account? She said probably few checks during the course of five years. The attorney became louder when he presented copies of more than five hundred canceled checks that she had written from that account. The attorney asked if those were her signatures on all those checks. She was stunned and her attorney was looking down as well. He went ahead to say, “Would you call five hundred checks just a few”? She said, “Oh I did not keep count of them”. He asked her if she would have still said that she did not have access to their joint bank account? She acknowledged that she had the access to his account and as a matter of fact she handled all the financial matters of their household.
Attorney then asked her if she was remarried at that time? Shockingly, she looked at her attorney and replied with a no. The attorney asked again if she had recently gotten married with someone in France? She took a deep breath and acknowledged that she did not get legally married but did a Nikah only. The attorney asked her if she did not consider Nikah as a marriage legally and Islamically? She said that she did not consider Nikah as a legal marriage. Attorney asked her if she had ever gotten married to Ali legally? She said yes she was legally married to Ali. The attorney then said, “so by doing just Nikah did mean a legal marriage to you? Didn’t you marry Ali by doing just the Nikah”? Irrum once again stumbled and her attorney could not help her much. It turned out that Irrum was married to Ali by Nikah only and they had never gone to the court for their legal wedding. Ali learnt that in the US you are considered married even if you have lived with someone in the same house for three years.
Ali learnt that Irrum had recently gotten married to some other Pakistani guy from Paris. She had flown there in August 2002 and gotten married with him under the Islamic Nikah. This marriage could have been challenged in court but Ali thought it was a gift from Irrum to him. By marrying right away she had given up her right of alimony support. They had a hearing on the motion of child support in September. Ali’s attorney fought the case well and got the court to order only $750 a month child support until Irrum found her professional job and asked them to return in two months. On the following hearing the child support was reduced to $400 a month. Their divorce was also put into judgment in November 2002. By now Irrum was exhausted in terms of paying her attorney. Her attorney tried to get Ali pay for her fees but Ali’s attorney was able to defend Ali on that. So Irrum could not pay her attorney anymore and the attorney officially detached herself from representing Irrum in that case.
[RIGHT]..... to be continued[/RIGHT]