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McGreevey fireworks set to begin
The divorce trial of the openly gay former N.J. governor and his wife starts tomorrow.
TRENTON - She claims she was duped into marriage by a closeted gay man who needed the cover of a wife to advance his political career. He says he gave her a child and the coattails she rode to the governor's mansion, thus fulfilling the marriage contract.
As Jim and Dina Matos McGreevey's three-and-a-half-year separation approaches the duration of their marriage, they are about to become unhitched - finally - when their divorce trial starts tomorrow.
New Jersey's former first couple are fighting over custody of their 6-year-old (he's seeking a 50-50 split), alimony and child support. But the question that everybody has asked at least once - did she know he was gay? - is likely to grab headlines throughout the trial because it's central to her case.
Matos McGreevey, 41, is seeking $600,000 as compensation for the time she would have lived at the governor's mansion in Princeton had her soon-to-be-ex not resigned in disgrace. Perks enjoyed by a sitting governor's spouse include household servants, access to a state police helicopter and a state-owned beach house.
Absent an 11th-hour settlement, which all sides indicate is unlikely, the gay former governor and his estranged wife will sit at adjacent legal tables, fewer than 5 feet apart, in the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth, as their high-priced lawyers lay bare the pair's sex lives and finances.
McGreevey's political career unraveled during his first term after an affair with a man he put on the state payroll as homeland security adviser. McGreevey says the man tried to blackmail him.
