Billionaire Kills Man in DUI, Then Adopts Girlfriend to Avoid Paying Punitive Damages
They deserve each other: Heather Laruso Hutchins and her new dad, John Goodman.
International Polo Club Palm Beach founder John Goodman is a very, very wealthy man. But convicted DUI homicide perpetrator John Goodman is a very, very naughty man.
So what’s a very wealthy Florida businessman to do to protect his enormous fortune from the family of the man he killed while driving drunk who is suing him for completely justified punitive damages?
Adopt his 42-year-old girlfriend, and leave his new child his incredible wealth.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelly had previously ruled that the trust funds set up for his two biological children were off-limits in the lawsuit, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Court papers show that Goodman adopted Ms Hutchins in October of last year, CBS12.com reported.
‘My reaction was that it was both awful and brilliant,’ Belray Beach adoption attorney Charlotte Danciu told CBS12.com.
The adoption papers state that Hutchins, now a legal child of Goodman, is immediately entitled to at least a third of his trust.
Some details on that DUI homicide: Goodman crashed into Wilson’s car with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. Wilson’s car flew off the road and into a canal. Because of the crash, Wilson became trapped in his car and drowned to death as the car sunk.
Goodman now seeks to take advantage of adoption laws in a state where adoption by loving, LGBT same-sex parents was illegal until recently because homosexuals are all such terrible people in order to personally profit from the death.
The Goodman family trusts and companies have been valued at more than $1.4 BILLION. As you can tell, there’s hardly enough money there to compensate the grieving family for the loss of their loved one.
What do you think of this man’s morally reprehensible, clever little gambit?
(via Slog)
