Jimbo Eruptions

Dawn Gibbons accused Jimbo of trying to scuttle their divorce settlement:

In court documents filed Tuesday, Nevada first lady Dawn Gibbons accuses Gov. Jim Gibbons of trying to derail their divorce settlement by taking their home off the market and of lying on his application to refinance the house.

The governor stopped the sale of their Kinney Lane home to refinance the house and lower his mortgage payments.


But Cal Dunlap, Dawn Gibbons’ lawyer, said the governor’s actions were inconsistent with their divorce agreement and that he misrepresented himself to the loan company.
On a document dated Jan. 25, 2010, the governor checked the “no” box when answering the question “Are you a party to a lawsuit?” and checked “yes” when asked if he planned to occupy the couple’s Kinney Lane property as his primary residence.

Jimbo Eruptions [Updated]

Minutes before the Gibbons divorce trial is set to begin, there is still no settlement resolving the dispute.

I am too lazy to go to the few blocks to the courthouse to watch the circus.

Update: It's just as well I stayed home: A tentative settlement has been reached in the case.

Details:

Update at 9:47 a.m.: Gov. Jim Gibbons and first lady Dawn Gibbons reached an 11th hour settlement agreement Monday morning, bringing an end to their 18-month battle to end their marriage and avoiding a potentially ugly public divorce trial as the governor embarks on a difficult re-election bid.

In reaching the agreement, Jim Gibbons agreed to sell the couple’s 40-acre property in Lamoille and split the proceeds with his ex-wife.

Settlement negotiations stretched late into the night Sunday, but the couple arrived at Washoe Family Court without an agreement. After about 30 minutes of continued negotiations, the couple entered the courtroom to announce they had resolved their disputes.

About a dozen onlookers sat in the gallery, along with local and national press.

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Although the governor's approval ratings have skyrocketed from 14 to 19 percent, it appears Nevadans will be spared the embarrassment of a circus trial.



In this picture, Jimbo appears to be quite happy with the settlement. He doesn't have to worry about Dawn screwing up his chances for re-election; he can now do that all by himself.

Here's the breakdown of the division of property.

Dawn will no longer be First Lady of Nevada, and she is moving out of the Governor's Mansion:

Dawn Gibbons said she will move out of the Governor's mansion "as soon as possible," saying when the divorce decree is signed she will be "just a private citizen."

Neither had lengthy comments after spending about 45 minutes in open court formally agreeing to the settlement.

"I wish Jim the very best," Dawn Gibbons said. "I was honored to be the first lady for three years. I did not want to do anything to dishonor my state and this agreement reflects that."

Despite Dawn's gracious comments, Jimbo's campaign manager proves he has no class at all when he characterized the First Lady job as mere "window dressing."

Jimbo Eruptions

The divorce trial of the century gets underway tomorrow, as Jimbo and soon-to-be-ex-wife Dawn haggle it out in court:

Some political observers say the proceedings will only cause more damage to a re-election bid that already is being condemned by some as a lost cause.


"This is not the publicity anybody wants," said Eric Herzik, political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Nobody looks good coming out of a bitter, public divorce."


Even in Nevada, where divorce is etched in the state's history, "he's going to be hurt by it," said Fred Lokken, another political scientist at Truckee Meadows Community College.


The public trial, set to begin Monday and run through New Year's Eve day, is expected to be featured on the television show, "Inside Edition." If the first-term Republican governor is worried about the publicity, he's not showing it.

So this circus will get national attention. I may swing by there tomorrow, provided I can get up early.

So far, negotiations this weekend have been fruitless. The trial starts tomorrow at 9 a.m., probably too early for me, and is expected to last four days.

Jimbo Eruptions

I only hope this happens:

Nevada first lady Dawn Gibbons plans to use next week's divorce trial as a forum to sabotage Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons' re-election bid next year, his lawyer contended in court documents.




"Ms. Gibbons' motives are simply to use this court and legal process to inflict pain on her husband because she mistakenly says (he) jilted her for another woman," Gary Silverman said in a statement filed Friday.

He also said that if the governor is not re-elected, any alimony the court orders should end when his term expires at midnight Dec. 31, 2010.

Dawn Gibbons' lawyer, Cal Dunlap, could not be reached for comment. He has not filed a trial statement but said last week that he expects the trial to go forward because the two sides are far apart on many issues.

Jimbo Eruptions

Next week is Reno's Trial of the Century when Jim and Dawn Gibbons bring out their dirty laundry in public. But this is good:

Recently filed documents in the divorce case of Gov. Jim Gibbons and the first lady go into further detail about his contention that he shouldn't have to pay alimony past 2011 because he might not be re-elected.

As the Reno Gazette-Journal first reported Oct. 15, Gibbons' lawyer has argued that the governor should be able to stop paying Dawn Gibbons alimony after Jan. 1, 2011 because he could be unemployed after the next election.

Jimbo Eruptions

Nevada first lady and soon-to-be ex-wife (to the governor) Dawn Gibbons tells all or some about her divorce, her job, and her suspicions about her cheating husband in an upcoming magazine article for locals:

Speaking exclusively with writer Siobhan McAndrew in the December issue of RENO Magazine, the first lady openly talked about her shock over the divorce, why she fought to unseal divorce documents and why she doubts the governor’s “we’re just friends” defense for time he has spent with other women.


“Women are the ones required to give up so much to support their husbands, take time off to have children, and then, you end up where I am,” Gibbons said. “In politics, it’s just worse.”


The first lady said she has exchanged e-mails with other betrayed wives of governors, including South Carolina’s Jenny Sandford and New York’s Silda Wall Spitzer.
“I know how they feel, but the difference is they both have money,” Gibbons said. “At this point in my life, I had no idea I would feel this trapped.”

The magazine might be worth getting because there are comments from Jim Gibbons' friends Kathy Karrasch and Leslie Durant.

It will also be online at this site, so out-of-staters or people living all over the world will be able to read it.

Jimbo Eruptions

Kathy Karrasch, one of the two women alleged to be Governor Jim Gibbons' girlfriends, denies she ever had an affair with him, and if so, I can't blame her.

She denied it in a deposition.

That is how Karrasch described her relationship with the governor.

"I think it is pathetic if people think something is going on sexually. Nothing sexual ever went on. We are platonic friends. I am too busy with my children to have an affair with anyone."

"I have never seen him be other than a perfect gentleman." she added. "Not only with me, but with other people. He has been a loyal and faithful husband to his wife."

Gibbons was not accused of being unfaithful when he divorced his first wife, Toy, in 1983.

They divorced after 17 years of marriage. Gibbons balked at paying alimony, but a judge ordered him to pay $600 a month for two years. He also paid child support for their two children, Jennifer and Chris, until they turned 18.

Karrasch said she decided to make her feelings public in part because her children are devastated by the accusations and have been hounded by reporters at school.

She said she hates the limelight and just wants people to leave her family alone.

"My daughter was afraid to go to school because they were outside our door," she said.

"This is extremely painful on our kids. You can take potshots at me all day, but not at my kids."

Jimbo Eruptions

The Gibbons' messy divorce made the national news:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Of course Kathy Karrasch was not a "state worker," but like Leslie Durant was/is a doctor's wife.

Jimbo Eruptions III

Here is Dawn Gibbons' affidavit:

Again, to conceal his involvement with Leslie Sferrazza-Durant, a married
woman, the Plaintiff made public statements, after the filing of the divorce and after signing the stipulation that no public statements would be made
concerning the divorce ard related matters, that Leslie Sferrazza-Durant, also,
was just a longtime friend. This statement also, I am informed and believe, is false. In that regard, apparently to demonstrate his close relationship with Leslie Sferrazza-Durant, the Plaintiff made a public statement to the media, again, after signing the referenced stipulation, that he had held her hand at the time her child was born. This statement, too, was a false public statement. I know this as my own personal knowledge because I was there at the time.

Here is Jimbo's reply.

Jimbo Eruptions II

From the Reno Gazette-Journal is this video clip of Jimbo with "good friend" Leslie Sellers Cord Slusser Sferrazza Ford Sferrazza Durant at last year's Reno Rodeo:



Note where Gibbons' hands are as well as Durant's arm.

Jimbo Eruptions

Here are more juicy snippets from the Gibbons divorce case:

The records also show she was ordered to pay $796 in attorney fees by Washoe County Family Court Judge Frances Doherty in August for demanding more information from Gibbons on why he wants a divorce. Doherty said Nevada is a no-fault divorce state and Dawn Gibbons' "demand for particulars is spurious and served no purpose."

The governor cited "incompatibility" as his reason for the divorce. That was sufficient, according to the judge.

Dawn Gibbons' lawyer, Cal Dunlap, was authorized in a Feb. 23 order to depose Durant and Karrasch. Those depositions remain sealed.

In public court records, Dunlap said he wanted to know the times and places of the governor's "rendezvous with Karrasch." Among the questions Dunlap asked was whether Jim Gibbons had taken the women on trips and what gifts he had given them, dating to 1990.

Dunlap also requested phone records dating to 1990 to see how often the women spoke with Jim Gibbons.

In the unsealed records, Dawn Gibbons said her husband deliberately destroyed phone records from his Washington office in an attempt to hide long-distance calls he made to women. Jim Gibbons was a five-term congressman before running for governor in 2006.

Dawn Gibbons also refers to the governor making 867 text messages from a state cell phone to Karrasch in a six-week period shortly after becoming governor. Jim Gibbons told reporters that he was responding to Karrasch's messages, even at 2 a.m., and that she sometimes offered him advice on political matters.

Dunlap treated that comment with skepticism, asking who "can possibly believe his explanation that he was consulting with another man's wife in the wee hours of the night on matters of state?"

Who indeed?

Jimbo Eruptions

I have been waiting all day for the report of a local judge releasing quite a bit of the shenanigans surrounding the Gibbons' divorce.

Details, details, details:

Dawn Gibbons, through her lawyers, charge that the governor's claim that they needed a divorce because they were incompatible were bogus, and that the real reason he was seeking a divorce was because he was seeing another woman.

"Despite his disingenuous shallow and transparent protestations that his relationship with another man’s wife is a mere friendship, his infatuation and involvement with the other woman is the real, concealed and undisclosed reason for his voluntary departure from the marriage and from the mansion where he occasionally resided," said her lawyer Cal Dunlap in court filings.

In an affidavit, Dawn Gibbons talked about his alleged affair.

“He stated that he was not involved with another woman and claimed that his involvement with Kathy Karrasch was merely a friendship," she said in an affidavit. "Kathy Karrasch, on one or more occasions, has stated that she is the mistress of the plaintiff.”

Dawn Gibbons said that several months before the governor announced plans for a divorce, "Kathy Karrasch moved into a condominimum."

The reporter, Martha Bellisle, promises more details as they become available.

Jimbo Eruptions

Governor Gibbons doesn't need his wife's lawyer for him to be an embarrassment.

Jimbo Eruptions

There's a possibility the curious will get a chance to look at the Gibbons' divorce records.

Jimbo Eruptions

A judge has chastised both sides in the messy Gibbons divorce.

Jimbo Eruptions

Jimbo decided to be interviewed about his divorce from long-suffering wife Dawn and said he plans on dating again (and he hasn't been dating other women he's been seen with, mind you), and, no, he doesn't have a girlfriend.

He does have a thing for being friends with doctors' wives, however.

Here is the television clip. There will be more, apparently:

"What I want to tell people is that I'm just like they are, I don't want to be a lonely Governor, I'm going through a divorce. I'm in the middle of a very painful time in my life, this has been going on, my wife and I have been separated for about 7 months. I really think that people should expect, and will, see me with my friends out to dinner, wherever, going to a rodeo, that shouldn't be a newsworthy thing."

According to the report, he seemed to be "relieved" in double talking around the questions.

The Gleaner writes about this latest damage control stunt.

Speaking of his close friends, Leslie Durant has been cited in the July 4 weekend hit-and-run in her neighborhood:

Reno police have cited Leslie Sferrazza Durant for careless driving and hit-and-run in connection with an early-morning crash on her street during the Fourth of July weekend.

Durant, a recent companion of Gov. Jim Gibbons, must appear in court on the two misdemeanor charges but was not booked into jail.

Tune in the for the next installment.

Jimbo Eruptions.

While Jimbo's fingers were extremely nimble, his brain went out to lunch.
_____

Some Democrats agree with me old Gibbons is calling a special session of the legislature merely to distract attention away from his messy divorce.
_____

Meanwhile, his approval ratings are down to Nixonian levels.

This is good:

Coker said Gibbons' personal problems could be costing him anywhere from 10 to 15 percentage points. He said governors in other states who don't have highly publicized personal problems but do have budget crises due to bad economies tend to have approval ratings in the low to mid-30s.

Coker also said he has seen governors in other states with ratings worse than Gibbons, including some “in the 10 to 15 percent range – but most of them were under indictment.”

It's early yet for Jimbo. But he probably wishes he'd never run for the job.

He may have been better off being a worthless representative in Congress and living far, far, far away from Dawn than being back in Nevada and becoming a national laughingstock.

Gibbons is trying hard to be the Big Brown of America's governors:

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research pollster Brad Coker can't say absolutely that Gibbons has the worst job approval rating among all governors, but of the 20 to 25 states Coker polls in regularly, Gibbons' 21 percent approval rating is the lowest, he said.

Jimbo Eruptions.

If there is anybody who ever needs good p.r., it's Jim Gibbons.

The worst thing Jimbo could have done was hold a press conference and answer questions. As one p.r. expert said, if he was going to do that he should have just made a statement. From news report it appeared the press conference made Jimbo look even more guilty.

Jimbo Eruptions II. [Updated]

It appears our governor is a nonpartisan one after all: He was recently seen at a Reno pancake house with a woman alleged to be Leslie Durant (maiden name Sellers), now around 44 years of age, who gained a lot of publicity back in the mid-1980s for marrying, divorcing, remarrying, and divorcing then-Reno mayor Pete Sferrazza.

If her current name is Durant, then she has been married at least five or six times. I know she has at least one child (not with Sferrazza). She had been married at least once and possibly twice already when she married Sferrazza, nearly twenty years her senior, back around 1985/1986, I believe it was, when she was 22 and he was 41. One of her husbands was a Cord family heir, and I believe another husband was a doctor she was married to for a few weeks between her two marriages to Sferrazza. The Sferrazza marriage was stormy, to say the least, and Leslie reportedly didn't get along at all with his daughter Jessica (now on the Reno city council). Anyway, they split up for good, and Pete Sferrazza married another much-younger woman to whom he is still married and with whom he has two children. Leslie, who made an appearance on Geraldo Rivera's television show back in the 1980s, has stayed out of the limelight ever since. At least until Jim Gibbons decided to intrude.

I have a bunch of articles about the Leslie/Pete Sferrazza soap opera, and I did have a copy of the Playboy issue which Leslie posed in the altogether. I probably still have the magazine, but it is stored away, as is the scrapbook where I have the Sferrazza articles.

--A USA People Search doesn't yield much in the way of information about the various names of Leslie Durant. I hate to have to rummage thorugh my scrapbooks; it is a pain in the ass.

---I did rummage through the scrapbooks I have in the apartment; the one I am looking for is not there. It's probably in my landlord's storage unit or in his apartment.

-----I still can't find the articles, but I know I still have them. I don't think I put them out to the storage unit across town.

Another thing to note: Leslie did an interview with the Reno News & Review alternative weekly some years back. At that time she was a single parent, and she was talking about what she had been doing in the years since the divorce from the former mayor. As I recall, she had positive things to say about him. By that time, he had remarried. Unfortunately, a search in the RN&R archives turns up empty on her. I have tried to go through every issue in the online archives going back to 2002, and I have come up empty. It may be a case of an article which is not online.

An alternative in finding the original Reno Gazette-Journal articles about Leslie and Pete Sferrazza would be to go to UNR and look through the microfiche. I am not sure I want to do that.

At around the time she married Pete, he was running for Congress against incumbent Barbara Vucanovich, and even though he had a shoestring budget to run against her, he won something like 42 percent of the vote. This was impressive given the fact he used much of his own money and District 2 was even more Republican than it is now.

Note if you will I am writing this out of memory, so there might be a few faulty details. Not everybody can remember everything from 20-plus years ago. At the time I had returned to college, attending the University of Nevada, Reno, and was taking a few journalism courses before I gave that up and majored in general studies. During the Sferrazza soap opera, there were students I took journalism classes with who either knew Leslie or knew about her, and at the time they all had low opinions of her. "Stupid" and "golddigger" were the words used to describe her at the time.

Jimbo Eruptions III.

Even CNN gets into the act. Well, it IS like watching a train wreck: