Divorce Debts Land River Forest Developer Marty Paris In Jail Again

CHICAGO — A Cook County divorce court judge has jailed a suburban real estate developer until he comes up with more than $1.6 million in cash.

Frank Martin "Marty" Paris Jr., whose contentious six-year divorce from the mother of his seven children, Kerry, was finalized last December, was also ordered to take out a $2.5 million life insurance policy with his ex-wife as the sole beneficiary, according to court records.

Paris is the founder of Sedgewick Development and the son of the longtime village president who shares his name. His ex-wife filed for divorce in 2016 after 14 years of marriage, and a judge in the case ordered him to set aside $750,000 to pay for legal fees.

After Paris failed to establish the fund, asserting that his assets were highly leveraged, he was ordered held at Cook County Jail for contempt of court for five days in 2018. He unsuccessfully appealed that order and wound up posting a $500,000 bond to secure his release.

The Paris divorce was finalized in December 2022 with a 101-page order, which found Paris had a net worth of more than $28 million and had sufficient resources to provide his ex-wife and children with financial support and maintance.

The judge who penned the order, who has since retired, found "that Marty's testimony regarding his precise personal income was not credible, was evasive, and unreliable."

Paris has argued that money he makes is actually "phantom income" tied up in financing agreements with banks and real estate deals.

The developer has also contended that his real estate business has suffered due to market changes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and that he would have to break business contracts to liquidate enough assets to pay the money ordered.

In October, attorneys for his firm withdrew from its defense in a lawsuit filed by a creditor over a River Forest condominium development that is now in receivership, citing unfulfilled "obligations," the Real Deal reported.

Following a series of contempt hearings before Cook County Circuit Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek, who took over the case, Paris was arrested on Dec. 7.

The following day, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

According to the filing, which a judge later found to be incomplete, Paris has fewer than 50 creditors, less than $10 million in assets and owes more than $10 million and less than $50 million to his creditors.

Paris' ex-wife's attorney argued that he is a "wealthy serial contemnor" who will only pay his domestic support obligations if he is "coerced" to do so with the threat of jail.

"His skeletal bankruptcy filing — which came in the middle of a hearing remanding him to Cook County jail for the third time for refusing to follow the Divorce Court’s orders — is an abuse of the bankruptcy process designed to continue the torture he has inflicted on his ex-wife and seven children," argued one of her attorneys.

According to the Cook County Record, which first reported Paris' jailing, Paris has paid about $30,000 per month in family support since his divorce was finalized last year but says he cannot afford millions of dollars in legal bills for attorneys who represented him and his ex-wife in their contentious uncoupling.

One of the lawyers in line in line to receive some of the money Paris has been ordered to pay has recently been romantically linked to his ex-wife, the Record reported. ALABNews also reported that very same attorney was subpoenaed and testified in the Paris divorce proceedings and recently settled his own divorce case — moments before Paris' wife was scheduled to be questioned under oath by the developer's lawyer.

The Pretrial Fairness Act, a portion of the controversial SAFE-T Act package of criminal law reforms, eliminated cash bail from criminal court when it took effect in September.

The law established an offense-based system for determined who could be jailed while awaiting trial, and most felonies are now "non-detainable" unless a judge finds that someone is very likely to flee before the next court date, regardless of whether that judge considered the person a danger to the community.

But the SAFE-T Act had no effect on civil contempt proceedings, so a judge can still order someone jailed for violating one of their orders.