This was Posted on Mon, May. 23, 2005 in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Proof that divorce can get ugly.

Report of burglary may cost lawyer $300,000

He called it a break-in. She co-owned the house. They're in a federal case.

By L. Stuart Ditzen

Inquirer Staff Writer


Richard P. Gilly, a Harvard-educated patent lawyer, called the police on Nov. 27, 2001, to report a burglary.

It turned out to be a very expensive call.

A federal judge has ordered Gilly to pay $300,000 to his ex-wife, Karen Sheedy, for having her arrested on the claim that she burglarized his house in Chestnut Hill when, in fact, it was their house.

Sheedy had removed some furniture and other possessions during divorce proceedings. Police said Gilly had never told them she co-owned the house.

The mother of 7- and 9-year-old boys, president of a home-and-school association, and a strict vegetarian whose e-mail address is "veganmom," Sheedy spent two days in jail, squeezed in a cell with prostitutes and drug dealers, before her parents could bail her out.

On learning that Sheedy was accused of burglarizing her own house, a Municipal Court judge dismissed the charges.

The federal courts generally do not hear disputes of warring ex-spouses, but Sheedy, in a what might be termed "The Revenge of Veganmom," filed a civil-rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in 2003 accusing Gilly of false arrest and malicious prosecution.

"You shouldn't be able to call the police and have your wife arrested, no questions asked," said Sheedy, 44, a mechanical engineer who now lives in Ambler. "This isn't the Taliban."

A jury in December ordered Gilly to pay her $3,075 in compensation and $500,000 in punitive damages.

Judge John P. Fullam reduced the verdict to $300,000.

Gilly, 44, a former partner at Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen, declined to comment.

Fullam observed in an opinion: "I found it difficult to accept the notion that Mr. Gilly, himself a lawyer, could charge his wife with burglary for entering their jointly owned residence... .

"A respectable housewife with young children, she suffered the humiliation and embarrassment of being arrested, and of spending two days in durance vile [imprisoned]. For the rest of her life she will have a police record."

Gilly's lawyer, Jerome J. Shestack, former president of the American Bar Association, has appealed Fullam's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The appeal process typically takes six months to a year.

Shestack contends that his client did nothing wrong and cannot afford a $300,000 judgment.

Even so, Gilly, now a partner at the firm of Fish & Richardson, defied Fullam's order last month to provide information on his financial status to Sheedy's lawyer, William J. Fox.

There is not much dispute about the basic facts in the case - so little, in fact, that Fullam declared in exasperation during the trial: "It seems to me almost totally idiotic that this case has not been resolved by a settlement."

Sheedy and Gilly married in 1994 and separated six years later. She moved out of their house in the 200 block of East Meade Street, taking their two children. Gilly stayed, changed the locks, and eventually became engaged to another woman, who moved in with him.

Sheedy was unable to get various belongings from the house. So while Gilly and his fiancee were on a trip to Europe in November 2001, she hired a locksmith to let her in. She loaded rugs, bookshelves, bedroom furniture and other items - all possessions she claimed as hers - onto a van and left.

When Gilly returned, he found a note tacked on the door telling him where he could find a key to the new lock.

Gilly called the police and reported that Sheedy had broken into his home and stolen $12,000 worth of his property.

He testified at the civil trial in December that he had made the call partly because he feared Sheedy might come back: "I was concerned for the safety of myself, my... fiancee and her son."

Gilly said he had informed police that Sheedy co-owned the house. Two police officers testified that they did not remember being told that.

An affidavit of probable cause was issued for Sheedy's arrest on felony charges of burglary, theft, criminal trespass, and receiving stolen property.

On Jan. 11, 2002, she went to the Northwest Detective Division to surrender.

She was photographed, fingerprinted, taken in a paddy wagon to the Police Administration Building, and placed in a cell with several prostitutes and drug dealers - most of whom, she said, appeared to be in varying states of drug withdrawal.

The food? A cheese sandwich, which she declined. Vegans do not eat dairy products.

Eventually, Sheedy's parents, who live in Warrington, sprung her by posting $2,500 bail. Two months later, the charges were dismissed.

Sheedy said she had nightmares for a long time afterward.

Ha! LOL serves him right for being such a STOOPIT-[censored].
JMO.
Harold

Boy, and I thought doofus was undesirable.