Divorce, for most people, is not an easy process. Mediation does make the process easier.
However, a woman in Michigan (and a former NJ resident) decided that hiring a hit man to murder her husband was an easier way to resolve the issues she had with her husband. According to an article in nj.com and video released by the Muskegon County Prosecutors Office, Julia Charlene Merfeld, 21, said to an undercover police officer: ” when I first decided to do this … it’s not that we weren’t getting along. But … terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him. You know, I didn’t have to worry about the judgment of my family, I didn’t have to worry about breaking his heart, all that stuff like this. It’s, like, how I got a clean getaway.”
She pleaded guilty to solicitation to murder on June 27. However, her husband and intended victim asked that she get no jail time at all.
Instead, Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti committed to cap her minimum sentence at six years. The maximum can be anything up to life in prison, depending on Marietti’s decision at Merfeld’s sentencing July 30.
I guess we can now use the tag line: Divorce mediation — a better way to stay out of jail!
If you are interested in staying out of jail and mediating your divorce, please contact me.