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No end near for McGreevey divorce case

"We're very far apart," ex-governor's lawyer says.

ELIZABETH, N.J. - Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, the nation's first openly gay governor, and his estranged wife returned to court yesterday, making little progress toward settling their divorce case.

Superior Court Judge Karen M. Cassidy, trying to avoid a trial that she said would harm the couple's young daughter, mediated over three hours of closed-door talks with their lawyers. The McGreeveys stayed in separate conference rooms.

But when Cassidy took the bench to address the lawyers and their clients, she said she was "deflated and exhausted."

"To say I've had little success would be understated," she said. "You'll have to decide if you want to try this case and let it become the spectacle it's bound to be.

"I'm trying to resolve this case at a point in time before it gets more expensive. I really was hopeful, but I'm not hopeful now."

Cassidy said the main issues in the case - parenting and finances - were not unusual, aside from the publicity the case would attract.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, McGreevey said: "It's in everyone's interest to settle and stop the excessive legal costs and personal pain and aggravation, and move on with our lives."

After the hearing, his attorney, Matthew D. Piermatti II, acknowledged, "We're very far apart right now."

But he said he remained optimistic of a settlement, adding that once the McGreeveys focus on their daughter, "the other issues will fall into place." Legal costs now exceed $300,000 for the former governor, Piermatti said.

Dina Matos McGreevey and her attorney, John N. Post, left the Union County Courthouse without speaking to reporters.

Cassidy said that Matos McGreevey's request for a jury trial on claims of fraud, emotional distress and libel would have to come before the divorce trial and would be handled by another judge. Among other allegations, Matos McGreevey has asserted that her husband made public claims that she is homophobic, which she says he knew to be false.

McGreevey, 50, shocked the nation when he announced in August 2004 that he was "a gay American" and would resign. He said he had been the target of a blackmail threat from a former lover, whom McGreevey had put on the state payroll.

The McGreeveys, who married in 2000, split when they moved out of the governor's mansion in November 2004.

Jim McGreevey, who has been married twice, now lives with partner Mark O'Donnell in Plainfield. He has a 15-year-old daughter, Morag, from his first marriage. Dina Matos McGreevey and the couple's 5-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, live in Springfield.