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Vol. 14 No. 16
Serving Cave Creek, Carefree, North Scottsdale, North Phoenix, Rio Verde, Anthem, The Boulders, Desert Mountain, Legend Trail, Pinnacle Peak, Terravita, Tramonto, Troon, Tatum Ranch and Winfield.
April 16 – 22, 2008
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Judge rules woman is a man

Court validates marriage to enable divorce

By Linda Bentley

    
    PHOENIX – Last August, Sonoran News ran an article titled: “Can Arizona divorce same-sex couple wed as man and wife?”
    It was about two Glendale women, Jasmine Dawn Kuzma and Barbara Jean Moss, who got married in Las Vegas on March 14, 2006, seeking a divorce in Arizona.
    While Nevada doesn’t allow same-sex marriages, that apparently didn’t get in the way for the two, with Kuzma presenting herself as the groom to the Clark County Marriage Service Office and swearing she was a man on her Affidavit of Application.
    Kuzma showed her driver license to the clerk for ID, which clearly states Kuzma is female.
    Without flinching, the clerk issued their license and off they went to a chapel to get married.
    When Sonoran News spoke with a supervisor at the Clark County Marriage Services Office, she insisted the clerk who issued the license must have been presented with identification that confirmed Kuzma was a man, or there was no reason for her to believe otherwise.
    On June 28, 2007, after their marriage had gone south, Moss filed for dissolution of marriage and for an order of protection.
    In August, Kuzma filed a petition of her own, including a motion for a ruling on whether Arizona had jurisdiction to rule on their dissolution of marriage, citing, “… both the petitioner and respondent in this matter are legal females.”
    Kuzma, who is disabled, also asked the court to return her to their home so she could receive the care and support she received the previous two years, or that Moss be ordered to pay her temporary spousal maintenance of $2,200 per month and provide her the use of one of the couple’s two vehicles.
    In her petition, Kuzma even acknowledged their marriage may be fraudulent and their marriage license may have been wrongly issued by the Clark County Marriage Clerk, as they were not married as a same-sex couple but as a man and woman.
    Readers may also recall, the Arizona Department of Economic Security filed a lien against Kuzma in March 2007, on behalf of Tuscola County, Mich. for past due child support totaling $21,581.70, for a child Kuzma gave birth to prior to becoming a lesbian.
    Could Arizona, which does not recognize same-sex marriage, actually order the dissolution of a same-sex marriage that was fraudulently obtained as one between a man and a woman?
    Wondering how this would be resolved, we were not quite prepared for Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Ruth Hilliard’s findings after taking the matter under advisement on Nov. 5, 2007.
    Hilliard, a judge since 1985, has been assigned primarily to civil and criminal cases throughout her career, with a short stint in family court from 1988 – 1991. In June 2007, she was reassigned to family court, just in time to deal with this divorce.
    On Nov. 20, Hilliard wrote in her minute entry order, “The issue of the validity of the parties’ marriage in Nevada on March 14, 2006 has been under advisement. Having considered all evidence and argument presented, the court finds and orders as follows.
    “The evidence established that prior to March 14, 2006 and as early as May 2005, petitioner had begun the process of a sex change. Petitioner has acknowledged that as a step in the process, petitioner had his name changed legally from Jerry to Jasmine Dawn, including changing his birth certificate and his driver’s license. In petitioner’s paperwork filed Aug. 23, 2007, petitioner took the position that petitioner is a female; however in later pleadings and at the evidentiary hearing, petitioner has taken the position that he is still a male.
    “The court accepts petitioner’s avowal that no surgery has been done to alter petitioner’s body physically.
    “In addition, it is uncontested that petitioner indicated that he was a male at the time the marriage license was applied for in Nevada … “The court finds that the marriage entered into between the parties … is a valid marriage.
    “Therefore, this matter will not be treated as an annulled marriage but as a marriage in the process of being dissolved.” And, a decree of dissolution was issued on Jan. 9, 2008.
    So, Kuzma simply claimed she was a man, “avowed” she’s had no surgery to alter her body physically, stated she had her name and birth certificate changed to say she was a woman, and Hilliard bought her story without proof.
    Kuzma’s birth certificate reveals her name at birth on Feb. 21, 1959 was Jasmine Dawn and she was female, as stated on her original birth certificate signed in 1959.
    Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain how Kuzma could have given birth to a child in Michigan, before meeting Moss, if she was “still a man” at the time they married.
 
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