"Susie, why did you have to get poor Angelo involved in this mess?" Betty, Angelo's wife, called me a few days after the article hit. "You know he can't handle this pressure." Betty was worried about Angelo's state of mind. He had given up practicing law these last ten years or so in favor of real estate. Handling people's problems, like lawyers do, is not for everyone. If someone cannot wall off the job from their real lives, or operate unemotionally they may become troubled. Actually, I was getting worried about Angelo too. The enormity of Frank's problems combined with his severely declining health, the unbelievably uncaring attitude of not only the court, the hospital and the community, but of his family also, have all combined to make us all incredulous at the cold, callousness of the human race, in particular when it involves money. It is said that money is at the root of evil for many people, but it seemed Frank's family and his wife's attorney in particular.
Angelo was calling me several times a day to rant about his pressures. He was also calling Matt at work constantly. Matt has a stressful, high pressure job and needs to be able to concentrate. I tried to tell Angelo that even I don't call Matt unless it's important. This didn't stop him from calling Matt several times a day. Even when Matt would try to explain to him that he couldn't talk at that moment, Angelo would become offended, thinking that Matt was not respecting his time, and would continue his ranting anyway. Even Matt's co-workers were complaining about Angelo's constant disruptions at work. He was ruminating on the case; how he wished he hadn't taken the case on, how he hated Fargo, and how the judge was conspiring against us, how he wished he could trade places with Frank and just mentally disappear. He was becoming paranoid about everyone, including Matt and me, and he began turning my own parents against me. Angelo needed to be able to put it all away and only deal with it when he needed to; that's what lawyers do. He wasn't putting the case away when he wasn't working on it, he was thinking about it constantly and everything became personal. He began talking about the bill and how much the case was costing him, professionally and personally. He claimed he couldn't take on new cases because this one was taking so much of his time. Every time he brought it up, it was some skyrocketing amount even though he knew Frank was destitute. Angelo became so irrational that I began suspecting either drug abuse or a personality disorder. Even my children began complaining about the constant deliberations in our home. I found myself hoping that Angelo wasn't going to drop by, because his behavior was becoming emotionally overwhelming. Every thought that entered his head became our emergency and must be acted on immediately. The stress was affecting everyone, which permanently damaged our relationship.
"I'm so sorry Betty, I had no idea it would come to all this." I apologized. If I had known it would become this complicated I never would have allowed him to get involved. I think we need some reinforcements. We're hiring another attorney to help Angelo." Matt and I knew that Angelo was in over his head on this. A divorce should not be this complicated, or continue for six years when there are no assets to fight over, and Angelo was becoming increasingly paranoid. At Angelo's insistence, Matt called an associate who was a federal agent. He told her about what was going on at the courthouse. Local government corruption wasn't really her thing, she investigates drug rings, but she recommended an attorney in Delaware County who was a former federal agent, Tom DiLiberto. A local attorney that the judge was familiar with could also help even things up for us. Matt called him, told him why we needed him, and asked him to go to court with Angelo. Angelo sent over the load of briefs and filings that had been exchanged up to this point. We never even met with him before our day in court, but he inspired confidence with his direct and efficient demeanor.
Our day in court was coming up soon; three weeks from the day the article was in the paper. Angelo began sending out subpoenas. Fargo claims that she answered interrogatories about the divorce. Interrogatories are questions that each party are supposed to answer about themselves and mostly about their finances. Fargo refused to allow Kat to answer any new interrogatories, claiming that it was done already six years ago, but she wouldn't let us see them because they were in storage. Nicholas Zinc told us that there were no interrogatories done so we knew that she was lying again. Then she said that Tammy Cavalier had them. Angelo subpoenaed Nicholas and Tammy Cavalier to get their testimony about the missing interrogatories, so then she said that they were lost.
Angelo, Matt and I were still looking at all angles to gain us some psychological ground with Fargo and the judge. Since it was mid-October, election day was right around the corner. We called every candidate running for judge in Delaware County to point out our article in the newspaper and offer our support if any of them would like to use the court's misjudgments in Frank's case against them. We got three call-backs that showed interest in our case. What it was going to amount to, I wasn't sure. There hasn't been a Democrat judge elected to Delaware County Court since the year 1789, or something like that. I'm not sure if Frank could change that, but if any of them wanted to give it a go, we were offering our support. We were trying to get a packed courthouse to show support for Frank. I was counting on these few candidates to show up, the reporter, one of Frank's brothers, and their aunt and uncle. I envisioned the aunt sniffling into a lace hanky and me comforting her with an arm around her shoulder. I thought maybe someone could make audible huffing sounds when Kat testified. I was actually worried for Angelo that they would charge him with contempt of court to punish him for the article. Angelo had us so paranoid, I didn't put anything past these people.
Meanwhile, Frank was still in the hospital. They weren't using the restraints as often because we complained to everyone in the hospital. They had to have extra staff to take care of him. We often saw someone in there feeding him or helping him walk in the hallway. That was the best they could offer though. He needed nursing home care with activities and therapy. The social worker at the hospital hadn't been able to find a place for him yet, but at least the hospital seemed to have a better attitude toward Frank's care.
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