Opinion ID: 1723507
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: dwight's story

Text: Dwight's side of the story mirrors Nancy's up to the point of his promotion and transfer to Gainesville. At that point, their tales diverge. After they agreed that the two daughters would come to Gainesville with Nancy, Nancy told Dwight that sixteen year old Michelle was pregnant. Dwight agreed that it would be okay for Michelle and the baby to live with them. Michelle had her baby in January of 1983. Dwight had put Nancy and the girls on his health insurance through his employer, but the pregnancy was not covered. According to Dwight, the money from the sale of Nancy's home was used on hospital bills, doctor bills, and other items needed for the baby, not as a down payment for the home which they eventually purchased in Gainesville. Dwight sold both his bass boat and his air boat to be able to furnish and make payments on the Gainesville home. Nancy decided to move her mother and sister from Miami to Gainesville so that they could be closer and the Sandlins could help look after them. The Sandlins helped Nancy's family buy a new house trailer and set it up in a mobile home park not far away from where the Sandlins lived. The Sandlins helped with the financing and set-up of the trailer, co-signing the mortgage. A few months later, when the Sandlins went by for a visit, they found the lot empty. Nancy's family had taken the trailer and moved back to Miami. Throughout the marriage, the Sandlins had contributed to Nancy's mother and sister's upkeep, sending money every month, maintaining insurance policies and helping out in emergencies. They did likewise for Michelle in California, and helped her move to Hattiesburg. They even contributed $1,700 for drug rehabilitation for Nancy's mother. The contributions were enough that the Sandlins claimed Nancy's mother and sister on their income taxes yearly. In November, 1984, Dwight transferred to Gannett headquarters in Virginia. Due to the fact that Sherri was doing well in school, and the temporary nature of the Virginia assignment, the family decided that Nancy and Sherri would remain in Georgia. In April, 1985, Dwight was offered a permanent position on the corporate staff of Gannett, which he accepted. He asked Nancy if she wanted to move to Virginia, but she did not want to do so. This was during the period in which he was flying back and forth to Georgia on weekends. Contrary to Nancy's claim that Dwight only gave her $35 per month, Dwight claims that his paycheck was being directly deposited into his and Nancy's joint savings account in Georgia. Meanwhile, he was living off of his expense account, because it covered all of his expenses. In June, 1985, Nancy served Dwight with divorce papers while the two of them were together at a company convention in New Orleans. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved out of the marital home in Gainesville, and were separated from each other for the next three years. Since Dwight was still living in Virginia during the week, he asked Nancy to split the belongings. She gave him only the furniture which he had before they were married. He bought the cabin and refurbished it so that when he sold it, he got $50,000 more than he had paid for it. Nancy contacted Dwight about giving her some money to build a house. He sent her the money for a down payment and closing costs. They had little contact after that until he went to Gainesville in the fall of 1987. While he was in town, a sheriff's deputy served him with divorce papers at his hotel room. There was no court date on the papers and he and Nancy had no further conversations about it. In January, 1988, Nancy called Dwight in Virginia to discuss the prospect of reuniting because she was tired of being alone. They did reunite, in March of that year, leaving Sherri in Gainesville to live with a friend so that she could graduate high school with her class, while Nancy moved to Virginia and began working for an electrical contracting company. After Nancy moved to Virginia, Dwight found that she was behind on the house payments, car payments for a new car that she had recently purchased, and payments on a new sofa. Dwight sold part of a coin collection which he had before the marriage to help her catch up on the bills. Nancy did not adapt very well to life in the cabin. Within two months of moving into the cabin, she wanted to move. As a result, Dwight asked for and received a transfer to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. They sold the cabin, putting $17,000 of the proceeds of the sale down on a new home on Lakeside Drive in Hattiesburg. The remainder was placed in a joint savings account. They bought some new furniture and had some antique furniture refinished. Dwight's salary before bonuses was about $46,000 when they moved to Hattiesburg, so Nancy did not need to work. They were generally happy during that time. Shortly thereafter, Sherri lost her job in Georgia, got pregnant, and moved in with them in Hattiesburg in early 1990. The baby was born in August, 1990. The expenses of the childbirth were carried by Sherri's boy-friend in Gainesville. During the marriage, Nancy took money from the joint savings account and started up her own in-home business called Beauty Control. She opened up an account for the business at a local credit union. She put all income from the business into this account, but bought supplies with money from the joint savings account. Dwight claims that between the time that Nancy told him that she wanted a divorce in May, 1993, and the time that she filed in August, Nancy cleaned $8,000 from the joint account. He assumes that this is where she got the money to pay for the house that she bought. In March, 1992, Dwight resigned his job at the Hattiesburg American under pressure from the new publisher. Part of his payoff from Gannett was a six-month severance package which included pay and benefits. In order to help make ends meet until he found work, he paid off Nancy's and Sherri's cars. Thus the only bills were the house payment, food, and utilities. Nancy did not want to leave Hattiesburg, and he could not find work in the field that had employed him for the past twenty-six years. In the fall of 1992, Dwight began negotiations with the owner of a small printing company to buy the business. Since the company was in a downhill slide, Dwight told Nancy that operating it would be just like starting a new business. He did not anticipate profits for up to two years. Nancy agreed to help him get the business off the ground. He bought the company in February, 1993, using proceeds from the sale of Gannett stocks. For the first few months, business was terrible; he was paying out twice what he brought in. In May, Nancy began to talk about a divorce. She said that her sister was moving to Hattiesburg, and that she could move into the home, and Dwight could move out. Dwight was having no part of that, although he agreed to help move the sister to Hattiesburg. In August, Nancy served Dwight with divorce papers. Shortly thereafter, Nancy's sister moved in with them. Nancy said that her sister had put some money down on a house in Hattiesburg, but that the house would have to be in Nancy's name as her sister had no credit. In order to prevent her sister from losing the deposit, Dwight was needed to sign the papers since they were still married. Dwight signed the papers. In the meantime, the sister moved out of the house. Nancy said that she had moved in with Michelle (who by this time had moved to Hattiesburg from California). But unbeknownst to Dwight, the sister had gotten an apartment, and the house being bought in Hattiesburg belonged to Nancy. The house was purchased with money from the now empty joint savings account. Nancy said that she was moving, but not before Christmas. On December 17, 1993, Dwight again asked when she was moving. Nancy replied that she would not move until the heat was on in her new house. That afternoon, she called him at work to say that she had moved out and for him not to be mad about the mess she left. When asked why she had lied about moving, she said that she wanted to be able to take what she wanted without Dwight interfering. He discovered that once again, she had taken everything acquired during the marriage. In addition, she had taken a silver dinnerware set that he had bought in 1971; the good china set; all the pots and pans, including an old set in the attic; fifty-five of sixty-six pieces of lead crystal bought an auction a couple of years before the final separation; and the refrigerator.