Nevada Barr the best-selling author, lied under oath about an affair she had with her current husband during a Mississippi divorce proceedings in 2005. While the perjury came to light during that divorce, her ex-husband is still getting his "pound of flesh" (more on that concept later) and the Mississippi Supreme Court has now instructed (link is to the Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion) the Chancery Court of Hinds County, Mississippi to whack-her-one-good as a sanction for perjury. Nevada Barr is going to get an expensive legal smack for lying under oath and for destroying evidence. She may go to jail if the Chancery Court decides to refer the matter for criminal prosecution. Is any of this fair? Probabaly not. Oh, don't let me go all Bad Lawyer on you, but why is her "affair" relevant to the division of property decision in a divorce court? Her extra marital affair while it may go to her "character" or lack thereof, is hardly relevant to a division of property which is all the proceeding in Chancery Court was about. In fact the Mississippi Supreme Court confirmed the property division decision that the Chancery Court made at the time. Her ex-husband, who certainly deserves to feel hurt and wounded by the betrayal doesn't have the right to compel an inquirey about non-material matters, to wit: my wife is a lying whore, punish her. That's all this is about.
Perjury is by definition, a false statement of fact or assertion that goes to a "material issue" in the case. This is why Bill Clinton was not prosecuted. Clinton's lie "about that girl" spoke volumes about his character, but was not perjury. Well, the boys down in Mississippi see it a little differently, and Nevada Barr is going to pay and keep on paying. As someone labled a "liar" by the OurState Supreme Court in the opinion that confirmed my status as a Bad Lawyer, I acutely feel the pain.
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