Marie is basically claiming she didn’t know about the criminal hearing, that even though it was in Ioan’s filing (which she signed to acknowledge reading) she hadn’t looked at it that carefully. (Mr. Stefanic is Alice’s public defender.) If the request for continuance was denied (the paperwork still isn’t available), then Alice’s response to Ioan’s request for custody is due tomorrow.
Marie says:
Late afternoon on the following day on Thursday, January 26, 2023, I learned of the possibility that there may have been criminal charges filed against Alice stemming from alleged violations ofthe restraining orders issued in connection with this family law matter. Upon further research, I observed an online tabloid article posted by the Daily Mail disparagingly alluding to the same. Thereafter, on or about Sunday, January 29, 2023, I confirmed through communications with Mr. Stefanic that in fact criminal charges had been filed against Alice and that no arrest warrant had issued, but an arraignment was scheduled to occur on Monday, January 30, 2023. The following day, I noticed the within ex parte was provided to loan's counsel the following morning on Monday, January 30, 2023.
I anticipate loan's counsel, Ms. Kiley, may allege that I should have been aware of criminal charges pending against Alice earlier than January 26, 2023, as loan included one sentence located at the bottom of a page of his Reply declaration filed in support of the unrelated Request for Order seeking an order to list and sell the Parties' former family residence which advised of a hearing set for January 26th; however, as I have previously informed Ms. Kiley, at the time of receiving the reply pleadings (notably, filed and served at approximately 11 :00 PM on Thursday, January 19, 2023) I only did a cursory review the following day as my focus was on settling the issue rather than preparing for the hearing given counsel and I were scheduled to meet and confer via telephone that day on Friday, January 20, 2023 (which had been scheduled the day prior to receipt of the Reply pleadings).3 Fortunately, we were successful in reaching a resolution over that weekend, which eliminated the need for me to incur any further fees to prepare for the hearing (which would invariably have included a more detailed review of the loan's reply pleadings).