Married Lawyers Face Trial for Payment Demands After Wife's Affairs
Two San Antonio, Texas, lawyers, married to each other, face a trial on theft charges based on allegations that the wife had sexual liaisons with four men whom the husband subsequently threatened with litigation unless they compensated him for his emotional distress.The trial in State v. Mary Roberts, Ted Roberts is scheduled to begin on Feb. 12 before Judge Sid Harle in San Antonio's 226th District Court.
A Bexar County grand jury first indicted the two lawyers on the theft charges in 2005, identifying the four men who are the complainants only by their initials. A second Bexar County grand jury reindicted the couple in 2006, this time naming the four men: Steve Riebel, Geoffrey Ferguson, Paul Fitzgerald and Reagan Sakai.
The second indictments allege that Mary and Ted Roberts unlawfully appropriated the four men's money by deception and by coercion. According to the indictments, the alleged offenses -- violations of Texas Penal Code §§31.01 and 31.03 -- occurred between Oct. 1, 2001, and April 2, 2002.
Cliff Herberg, Bexar County's first assistant district attorney, says the allegation is that the wife had sexual liaisons with the men and her husband subsequently approached them to demand payments or he would expose them to hatred, contempt and ridicule.