PALM BEACH, Fla., March 28 (UPI) -- A Miami-Dade County appellate court has tossed polo mogul and convict John Goodman's adoption of his 42-year-old girlfriend, calling it fraudulent.
Goodman adopted his girlfriend, Heather Anne Hutchins in September 2011, allowing her to be entitled to a portion of a trust fund set up for Goodman's ex-wife and his two children, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported.
The appeals court determined the adoption was fraudulent because Goodman withheld news of the adoption from his ex-wife and two children until it was too late for them to contest it.
Senior Judge Alan R. Schwartz, a judge on the panel, blasted Goodman in a written opinion.
"Even if the motivation and the means for securing it were not so reprehensible, I believe ... the adoption of a paramour is so contrary to the beneficent purposes of such an action that no such judgment can ever be sustained," Schwartz wrote.
Goodman's attorneys said they are looking for a new trial for his DUI manslaughter conviction in the 2010 death of Scott Wilson after it was revealed one of the jurors in the trial wrote a tell-all book about his ex-wife. He wrote that his ex-wife walked away from a DUI accident she caused, just as Goodman was accused of doing in Wilson's death, the Post reported.
His attorneys said had they known of the juror's ex-wife's accident, they would have dismissed him.
"Since the evidence provided in our motion reveals that Mr. Goodman's jury was tainted," attorney Guy Fronstin said, "he deserves a new and fair trial."
