River Forest developer Frank "Marty" Paris, who has been ordered to jail three times by a divorce court judge - in large part, because he disputed the court's order that he pay his ex-wife's lawyers - appears to have reached a settlement to bring the years-long, highly contentious divorce proceedings to a close.
On Dec. 2, attorneys for Marty Paris' ex-wife, Kerry Paris, filed a motion in Cook County Circuit Court, asking Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek to approve the deal between the former Paris couple.
In the deal, Kerry Paris' attorneys say they believe the deal falls short of the payment obligations they believe Marty Paris should owe under prior court orders.
Cook County CIrcuit Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek
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However, they say the settlement is needed to begin to stop the "detrimental effect on the ... emotional well-being" of Kerry Paris and their children that they say has been caused by the protracted divorce proceedings and "Marty's ongoing intransigence and even his willingness to use the children for his own purposes (including improper attacks on this Court and counsel...)" (Parenthetical statements in original.)
Marty and Kerry Paris have been opponents in court since 2016, when they filed for divorce.
The couple had married in 2022 and have seven children, including some over the age of 18, according to court documents.
Former Cook County Judge Tim Murphy formally dissolved the Paris' marriage in December 2022.
However, Marty and Kerry Paris have remained at odds in court ever since, amid a dispute over how much Marty should be forced to continue paying his ex-wife and her lawyers.
Marty Paris is the founder and president of Sedgwick Development in Chicago, a real estate development company which has built condominium buildings and other projects.
According to stories published by The Real Deal publication and others, Marty Paris is currently embroiled in legal disputes with local building officials, lenders and others, as he attempts to continue to move forward with several projects planned for River Forest.
However, at the same time, Marty Paris has also been in court repeatedly, attempting to keep himself from going to jail amid disputes with his ex-wife, her lawyers, some of his former lawyers and Judge Romanek.
Marty Paris had been in custody of the Cook County Sheriff's Office since last December. At that time, Romanek ordered him to jail under a so-called writ of body attachment after she found Paris in civil contempt for not fulfilling $500,000 in payment and asset transfer orders issued by Romanek and other judges who had overseen the divorce proceedings.
He remained in the Cook County Jail for nearly a month, including over the Christmas holiday in 2023. 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 2024, allowed to leave the house at which he had been staying only in limited circumstances for "essential activities" while wearing an electronic tracker monitored by the Sheriff's Office.
He was then ordered back to jail in July, but apparently avoided incarceration by paying $350,000.
Paris had earlier been ordered to jail for five days in 2017, as well, that time at the order of Judge Karen Bowes, allegedly to comply with orders from that judge to set aside $750,000 to pay Kerry's legal bills.
Marty Paris has consistently argued throughout the court fight that the jailings amount to an illegal "debtors' prison" scheme intended to squeeze him for money he doesn't have.
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 Kerry Paris, 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.
To attempt to secure relief, Marty Paris filed for bankruptcy. However, a federal bankruptcy judge agreed with Kerry Paris' lawyers that the filing didn't shield Marty from the divorce court's orders, including any orders sending him to jail for failure to pay any amounts ordered by the court.
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.
Between the time that Romanek ordered Marty Paris back to jail in July and the announcement of the settlement, the Paris' adult son, Conor Paris, sued Romanek, claiming she violated his constitutional rights by refusing to allow him to observe by Zoom the July 16 hearing at which the judge ordered Marty to jail.
Conor was supported in that lawsuit by the judicial reform organization known as Children of the Court, represented by attorneys Adam Florek, of Florek Law, of New Jersey, and Edward "Coach" Weinhaus, who also serves as executive director of the Children of the Court organization.
That organization states its mission is to help make the court system - and family law courts, in particular - more accessible and welcoming to adult children of the court.
The lawsuit from Conor Paris and Children of the Court remains pending.
The motion for settlement does not specifically reference that lawsuit as being among the alleged "improper attacks on the Court" asserted against Marty by Kerry and her lawyers.
In the motion for settlement, attorney Thomas C. Cronin, of Cronin and Co., noted that Marty Paris, together with a company identified as Keystone & Stuart LLC, had negotiated settlements with the Angelini firm and the Stout Law Firm.
According to the motion, the legal bills owed to the Cronin firm and Robbins DiMonte will be the responsibility of Kerry Paris.
The ex-couple also agreed to rework the judgment related to ownership of properties and child support.
The settlement motion noted the "parties are still attempting to document the settlement 'more fully.'"
The court docket does not indicate Romanek has yet ruled on the motion for settlement nor does it show any pending court dates.