Man Jailed for 11 Years for Civil Contempt in Divorce Case

"Slight, scholarly and enigmatic, H. Beatty Chadwick is doing this day what he has done for the past 4,093: He is sitting in a county jail outside Philadelphia. It is a place meant for run-of-the-mill crooks just passing through on their way to comparatively luxurious state prisons. Certainly not for anyone to stay 11 years -- not for the central figure in one of the most bizarre divorce battles in American history. It hinges on a charge of civil contempt designed to force Chadwick to turn over $2.5 million the courts say he hid overseas all those years ago. Except he won't. Or can't, depending on whom you believe. So Chadwick sits.

"He's an anomaly," says his lawyer, Michael Malloy. "They don't know what to do with him."

The case has produced an Everest of court papers -- a dozen pleas to the Delaware County courts, nine to state appeals courts, nine to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 12 to federal courts, two of those to the U.S. Supreme Court." AP, CNN.com Link to Article (last visited 9-19-06 NVS)