The Legal Times has a great deal more about the litigiousness of Mr. Sibley:
Whenever the family court ruled against Sibley (which it almost invariably did), he would appeal, vowing to fight down to his last dime. “If you want to attempt to squeeze me until I am dry, we will litigate until I am disbarred and bankrupt if necessary, for you leave me no other choice,” Sibley wrote his wife, court records state.
In total, Sibley filed more than 25 appeals with the family court. He also initiated at least a dozen suits in federal court against judges, the court system, and his former wife, according to one court opinion. He prevailed in one early appeal, but judges threw out the rest. […]
Sibley’s divorce case came to a head in August 2002, when the family court judge, Maxine Cohen Lando, told Sibley he’d face jail time if he did not ante up his long-overdue child support. The court ordered him to pay Barbara more than $100,000 and another $175,000 for the children’s private-school tuition, giving him a Jan. 1, 2003, deadline.
According to Lando’s opinion, Sibley had hidden his assets by transferring them to his second wife. (At the time, Sibley said they were estranged. They are now divorced.) And, Lando wrote, his income was far greater than he reported because his father subsidized his expenses.
Unsurprisingly, Sibley objected, claiming his income was only $37,500. Seeing no progress, Lando held Sibley in contempt in November 2002 and sent him to jail in Miami-Dade County. “It was a way to brutalize me,” says Sibley, who was imprisoned for more than two months.
After his release, Lando gave Sibley two months to make good on his child support, but by April, Sibley still hadn’t budged. Lando ordered him, once again, to jail. This time, Sibley’s father bailed him out and paid $100,000 of his child support. […]
Sibley’s fight was far from over. He still owed his ex-wife more than $33,000 from a separate judgment. In January 2004, a different judge held Sibley in contempt again and ordered that he be barred from filing any more documents with the court pro se. A Florida appeals court and the Florida Supreme Court concurred.
But Sibley continued his challenges, moving up the pecking order of judges. In 2004, he sued three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and all of the Supreme Court justices for violating his rights by denying cert and for committing treason. He sought $1 million in damages in Florida federal court. When that claim failed, Sibley tried again in D.C. federal court, seeking just $75,000. Last fall, that claim was dismissed.
These challenges led the Florida Bar to investigate two complaints against Sibley for his litigiousness and for failing to pay child support. Those complaints are still pending, an attorney for the bar says.
While Sibley says he expects to win on the ethics complaints, they already have caused him some headaches. After passing the bar exam in Maryland, where he has an office, he was denied admission until the Florida grievances are settled. (He already is a member in good standing of the bars in New York and the District.) Instead of waiting, Sibley filed suit in Maryland federal court, alleging the decision violated his constitutional rights. The case, like so many others, was dismissed.
Our coverage: Mar. 20, Mar. 17, Mar. 13; Mar. 7, 2006.
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