A Cook County divorce court judge has sent a River Forest developer back to jail once more indefinitely until he agrees to pay $350,000 to address allegedly unpaid "court ordered obligations," including at least $119,000 in fees to his ex-wife's lawyers.
On July 16, Cook County Circuit Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek ordered Frank "Marty" Paris back into custody at the Cook County Jail.
Paris has never been charged or convicted of a crime.
Marty Paris
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Rather, Romanek apparently found him in contempt of court for not paying what the court had ordered him to pay amid the emotionally-charged and long running divorce proceedings involving Paris' ex-wife, Kerry Paris. The decision to send Marty Paris back to jail came at the urging and request of attorney Thomas C. Cronin, of the firm of Cronin & Cronin, who is among those representing Kerry Paris in the case.
Cronin did not reply to a request for comment from The Cook County Record.
There was no time limit imposed on Marty Paris' jailing. Rather, the judge set a bond amount of $350,000, which Paris must pay before he can be released, according to Romanek's order.
A handwritten note on that order indicated the hearing was conducted at least partially online via video conferencing service Zoom. However, The Cook County Record was denied access to the court's Zoom feed for the hearing.
The Record also has learned that other members of the public were denied access to the proceedings on Zoom, including some of the Paris couple's children over the age of 18 and other journalistic observers who requested to listen in on the hearing.
The Zoom blackout comes after months of attention devoted to the case from The Record and other media outlets and public observers.
Paris has been in custody of the Cook County Sheriff's Office formally since Dec. 8, 2023. At that time, Judge Romanek also ordered him to jail under a so-called writ of body attachment after she found Paris in civil contempt for not fulfilling prior payment and asset transfer orders issued by Romanek and other judges who had overseen the divorce proceedings.
Romanek had initially ordered Marty Paris to pay more than $500,000.
He remained in the Cook County Jail for nearly a month, including over the Christmas holiday. He was later released from jail, but ordered into electronic home monitoring (EHM) when Romanek allowed him to pay $150,000.
He had remained on EHM since January, allowed to leave the house at which he has been staying only in limited circumstances for "essential activities" while wearing an electronic tracker monitored by the Sheriff's Office.
Marty Paris' latest return to Cook County Jail marks his third time incarcerated since 2016 in what he has described as a "debtors' prison" scheme he says is designed to squeeze him for money he doesn't have.
Divorce proceedings between Marty and Kerry Paris began in 2016. The couple had married in 2002 and have seven children, according to court documents.
Paris, founder and president of Sedgwick Development in Chicago, had been jailed for five days in 2017 at the order of Judge Karen Bowes, allegedly for failure to comply with orders from that judge to set aside $750,000 to pay Kerry's legal bills.
Throughout the process, Paris has argued the nature of his business means that seemingly tens of millions of dollars in revenue that appear on balance sheets and income statements don't actually equate to money in his bank accounts. Rather, Paris has argued those revenue figures represent "phantom income" that merely passes through his business to lenders who help to finance his company's residential building projects in Chicago and nearby suburbs.
However, judges have consistently sided with his ex-wife in finding that they believe Paris has a net worth of more than $20 million, and should be able to afford to pay off court-ordered judgments, including thousands of dollars each month in alimony and child support plus all living expenses for the homes held by his ex-wife, tens of thousands of dollars annually for his children's "activities," and millions in legal bills for attorneys who represented him and his ex-wife.
Marty Paris has filed for bankruptcy. However, a federal bankruptcy judge has stated the bankruptcy filing doesn't shield Paris from the divorce court's orders, including orders sending him to jail.
Lawyers who have backed Paris' incarceration over the unpaid bills include attorneys from the firms of Lake Toback DiDomenico and Hurst Robin Kay & Allen, who have represented Paris; and attorneys from the firms of Cronin & Co. and Angelini Ori & Abate, who have represented Kerry Paris in the proceedings.
Among others who would receive a cut of proceeds is believed to be attorney Sean Crotty, of the firm of Crotty & Schiltz.
According to court documents, Crotty has lived with Kerry Paris during the Paris divorce proceedings, and the two have been romantically involved. Crotty was among those co-signing briefs filed in federal bankruptcy court urging that court to allow Judge Romanek to jail Marty Paris.
Former Cook County Judge Tim Murphy formally dissolved the Paris' marriage in December 2022.
According to court documents, Paris paid $500,000 in family support in late 2022. However, he has persistently told the court that he cannot pay the additional ordered sums, because he doesn't have the money available to pay the legal bills and provide the $25,000 a month in support his ex-wife says is needed to maintain the family's lifestyle.
In correspondence sent to Judge Romanek, Cronin said Marty Paris must pay his ex-wife $5,500 per month in direct maintenance and $7,500 per month in child support, in addition to also paying the monthly mortgage payments on the family's primary home and to keep a "children's activities trust account" funded at $15,000.
In motions filed in May, Cronin asserted Marty Paris must also pay his firm $85,785 in fees they have charged while representing Kerry Paris. Cronin also asserted Marty must be made to pay $33,610 more to the law firm of Robbins Dimonte for fees charged while representing Kerry Paris in the bankruptcy proceedings.
In those filings, Cronin accused Marty of not making any of the required court-ordered payments since he was placed on EHM.
Proceedings in Cook County court have been emotional, with lawyers and Judge Romanek routinely berating Marty Paris, expressing frustration and exasperation with him and openly scoffing at his requests.
On July 16, for instance, a source who attended the hearing told The Record that people in the courtroom, including an attorney on the case, reportedly remarked that Romanek appeared to be in a particularly "bad mood" before ordering Marty Paris back to jail.
Marty Paris did not respond to requests from The Cook County Record for comment following the July 16 hearing.
Marty Paris is not currently represented by an attorney and reportedly appeared without a lawyer during the July 16 hearing before Judge Romanek.
Among those prevented by the court from observing the hearing on Zoom were representatives of legal news sites published by legal observer and attorney Edward "Coach" Weinhaus.
When asked if his publications intended to take action, potentially including filing suit for access against the courts, Weinhaus demurred, adding: "It's always the cover up."