I don't post often, but this caught my attention this morning. We have this stupid lovers triangle thing playing out in the newspaper and it is almost embarassing to read - but I know someone who knows the mistress and so I keep reading the damn story. I hate people who will not take responsibility for their own actions and feel the need to place blame elsewhere. This morning look at what was mentioned in the article:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100119/ARTICLES/100119435
Scorned wife describes changed life after husband's affair and drug use
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 2:53 p.m.
A woman who claims in a lawsuit that her husband’s ex-mistress got him hooked on crack cocaine testified Tuesday that her husband was forced to work as an undercover informant to avoid prosecution after he was busted for drugs.
Cynthia Siciliano, 46, of San Rafael said her husband Marc, 53, agreed to wear a wire to nab other drug users after he was pulled over in the car of his ex-lover, Jodie Graham-Potts, 49 of Petaluma, and arrested on suspicion of being high on crack and possession of paraphernalia.
Marc Siciliano went out on a number of undercover missions despite his wife’s fear that it was dangerous and he encouraged her not to worry.
“He enjoyed it,” Cynthia Siciliano testified. “He felt like he was Donnie Brasco,” a reference to a 1997 movie based loosely on the true story of an undercover FBI agent.
Her testimony came in the third day of trial in the civil case brought by Siciliano under the obscure Drug Dealer Liability Act, which allows family members to sue people who furnish their relatives with drugs.
She is seeking unspecified damages from Graham-Potts, charging she caused her emotional distress.
Under questioning, Siciliano, a hair salon owner, said her husband had an affair for more than 2 years with Graham-Potts, from 2004 to 2006, while she was a driver for the family’s limo service. The Sicilianos were married in 1997, she said.
She said didn’t know at the time the two were in a relationship or doing drugs, but her husband’s behavior changed dramatically and he became abusive to Siciliano and the couple’s young daughter. She testified he broke things around the house and would sleep for days, neglecting their child.
“He never acted like this,” Siciliano said. “He became a monster. I didn’t know what happened.”
She said that on March 1, 2005, he was arrested after being pulled over in Graham-Potts’ car and police discovered crack pipes in the glovebox. She said he explained the pipes weren’t his and she believed him. He didn’t tell her about the charges he had been doing drugs himself.
“I had no clue,” she said.
But she testified that on Dec. 25, 2007 — months after Graham-Potts and Marc Siciliano had ended the relationship — she discovered a videotape in his safe of the two having sex and smoking crack. A portion of the tape was played to jurors last week.
Siciliano said she consulted her father, a lawyer, and the two began planning a lawsuit against Graham-Potts without telling her husband, who had since reconciled with her.
She also told elders at the family’s church and Marc Siciliano was ex-communicated as a Jehovah’s Witness for a year.
Breaking into tears, she said 2005 “was the worst year of my life.”
“I came home from work on a Saturday and see our child in the family room all by herself, surrounded by cheese puffs and Oreo cookies,” she said.
Cynthia Siciliano said became depressed, suffered insomnia and broke out in a painful rash that required medication.
A lawyer for Graham-Potts, Lisa Gygax of Forestville, denied that her client is liable for Siciliano’s distress. She said Marc Siciliano admitted using drugs before he met Graham-Potts and had a affair in about 1998.
Testimony resumes Thursday morning when Judge Robert Boyd is expected to rule on several defense motions, including one to exclude the videotape from evidence on the grounds that copies were not provided in a timely manner. Siciliano’s lawyer, Robert Diskint, said the claim is unfounded.
Boyd encouraged the two sides to continue discussing a possible settlement of the case.
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