Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
true crimeSep 23, 202635:40

My Darling Wife | EP 9 | Season 3

Burden of Guilt

Get every episode summarized

Each time Burden of Guilt publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

About this episode

“This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East US with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East US with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. We've been talking about Kupy Mayo for a minute now, and wow!”From the transcript

On the eve of the verdict, Steve filed for divorce from Christine and left town. What followed were explosive allegations from Christine and a denial from Steve. Meanwhile, Cindy attempted to put her family back together.

You can reach out to the Burden of Guilt team at [email protected].  For more Burden of Guilt, follow us on Instagram @glasspodcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts & guests

Transcript ready

437 searchable segments. Every word is indexed and playable.

My Darling Wife | EP 9 | Season 3

Burden of Guilt

0:00
35:40

Full transcript

Burden of Guilt — My Darling Wife | EP 9 | Season 3. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East US with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East US with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. We've been talking about Kupy Mayo for a minute now, and wow! So many of you already love this stuff! And if you're thinking, wait, what is Kupy? Do you not have the internet? It's the OG Japanese mayonnaise. The one with the red cap. What makes it different? Egg yolks. Kupy is made with egg yolks only, giving it this rich, umami flavor that elevates to everything. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. Where chefs work, of course. Food and flavor lovers use it. You haven't tried it yet? We'll find the red cap and see what everyone's talking about while I don't try. Kupy. The original Japanese mayonnaise. Kupy. Thinking about selling your car? Get a real offer worth real money from CarMax. Then take seven days to think it over. That's it. No haggling, no hassles, no pressure. Get all the details in a real offer today at CarMax.com.

Wanna drive? CarMax. The crispy chicken cruntrap slider is back at Taco Bell. The slider sized cruntrap with nuggets inside you love the first time, now with the spicy kick you're gonna love this time. Hidden Valley Diablo Ranch. Or you could order some crispy all-white meat nuggets on their own. Pretty sure you love those anytime, every time. Okay, all of the times. The crispy chicken cruntrap slider. A brand new classic is back, only at Taco Bell. I'm participating in you as Taco Bell locations for limited time and while supplies last. Bite into a stack sandwich made with hero bread. And the only thing you'll think is delicious. You won't think it has up to 19 grams protein. 11 to 32 grams of fiber or just 0 to 5 grams net carbs. But it does. Hero bread. No compromises. Just love spuns, tortillas, bagels and noodles packed with flavor. Right now, get 10% off at Hero.co with code iHeart. That's H-E-R-O dot CO code iHeart. All figures for serving of hero bread, see nutrition facts on Hero.co.

Chris Decker represented Kenny Ham in his lawsuit against Cindy's ex-husband Steve. Everything I learned about Steve led me to understand that this was going to be a long, expensive and complicated civil action. And it was. When the case went to the jury, Chris felt cautiously optimistic. We're all very nervous. This is a long, hard grind over maybe almost two years of litigation. But we did have a good feeling. We felt like this case went well. That night, Chris gave Kenny some heartfelt advice. Kenny is a very sensitive person. He had been dragged through the pits of hell. And I just wanted to let Kenny know that these are things that leave scars. These are things that leave damage. And oftentimes we need help processing those things.

And so I just wanted to encourage him to consider some sort of therapeutic relationship where he can talk through these feelings. As Chris and Kenny had their eyes on the future, so did Cindy's ex-husband Steve. He served Christine divorce paperwork, got on a plane and flew back to Hawaii. Didn't even show up for the verdict. As the verdict of millions of dollars in damages echoed in the steamboat spring's courtroom, Steve was thousands of miles away. He let Christine whom he had just served divorce paperwork sit there and take the verdict alone. And I think that speaks volumes about Steve. A few months after the verdict, we first learned about this story and you'll never believe who told us about it. Hi there. I have been listening to your podcasts and continue to feel that I need to reach out. I am 15 months into my discoveries

and I'm doing my best to break all ties and heal. I'm Nancy Glass and this is season three of Burden of Guilt, episode nine, My Darling Wife. It was the two-stay before Thanksgiving in 2023 when both sides rested their case. It was a knockout, dragout fight. But it's also very scary because you never know what a jury's going to think. When the verdict came down the following morning, Cindy and Kenny knew it was a good sign. And they were right. The jury awarded them $21.3 million in damages. After that judge hit the gavill, you know, I was literally shaking afterwards. It took me five years to get that jury verdict. Five years of hard work in order for this to be exposed.

Not just exposed Steve and Christina what they did, but to expose on how the courts are failing and how the courts would be manipulated. Law Week Colorado reported that it was one of the state's largest judgments that year. To Cindy and I, it was about clearing her names. That's what we wanted. It wasn't about the money. This is the most difficult thing I've done in my entire life. Overcoming this has not been a challenge. It's a life changing and emotional experience. I'm forever a change character from us. Even to this day, it's hard for me to talk about. It impacted my whole life, my soul, you know, my being. I've grown from it, but I did not need this in my life. I thought back to the first time I met Kenny. It was at a restaurant in Florida, some 2,000 miles away from his and Cindy's home in

Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Usually people feel safe at home, but not Cindy and Kenny. Our reputation was destroyed in Steamboat. I was so terrorized, traumatized. We literally kind of camped six months out of the year down in Florida. Ever since this nightmare began in 2019, Cindy and Kenny had been on the move. Each time that we would go someplace, we would feel safe, take a little bit of our souls back. But 90% of our times traveling was not fun. Trust me, all of our conversations turned into being about the kids, about the litigation, about the courts, about the past and the future. It was hell. So Kenny, the first time we met, you didn't show up on time. And for a while, I was wondering if you were going to show up at all.

Yeah, I honestly didn't want to do it. We had just come out of our court case. We were both still suffering a lot of trauma. I feel like I'm to the level of, I still suffer through trauma, but I've learned how to live with it. To his credit, Kenny not only showed up, he opened up. And today he is in a better place, and credits his therapist for helping him find his way out of the darkness. You know, I've come a long ways since we've talked. Do I still have anger? Yes. Sadness, of course, but not as much. I've moved on from a lot of that in the healing process. Because if it wasn't me in Cindy's life, this was going to be somebody else. I wasn't targeted. I think she had a sense of guilt that she involved me in something in her life, that I had no part of.

And I was being impacted so greatly, like possibly going to jail for the rest of my life. So yeah, this is the most difficult thing anybody could ever imagine or go through. And I wish this on nobody. After a 22-day trial, the jury found Steve liable for over 20 million dollars in damages to Cindy and Kenny. And surprisingly, Steve wasn't in the courtroom to hear the verdict. So I saw Christine, and then I didn't see Steve, and I'm like, well, that's a good sign. Going into the verdict when he wasn't there, I knew that he knew that he had lost, and that he was going to be held responsible. He doesn't show up when he loses. That's how childish he is. He can't even show up.

Kenny's lawyer, Chris Decker, wasn't surprised. Someone in a civil case is not required to be at a verdict, but the fact that he didn't show is a remarkable statement, and totally consistent with the Steve that I know. He doesn't want to be confronted with the consequences of his own behavior, his own decisions, and his own directions. And get this, Steve didn't just leave town. He served Christine divorce paperwork, got on a plane and flew back to Hawaii. Think about that. Steve and Christine spent five weeks portraying themselves to the jury as two caring parents. And then, as the jury deliberated, Steve dropped divorce papers on Christine in Colorado and got out of town. I suspect he knew well what was going to happen, how the jury was going to render their verdict, and we were able to show that this was not a loving and supportive father,

this is a father with a priority belief and agenda, and then he was willing to use any person, he was willing to make any falsehood, and he was willing to undertake any effort to make sure that Kenny Hampe was criminally prosecuted, and that the mother of these children never saw their kids again. During the trial, Christine testified that she and Steve had separated almost a year earlier. There was notable tension between Steve and Christine at the trial. They were not sitting next to each other, they were not engaging in communication with one another. In fact, Chris Decker learned about the separation long before the trial. Halfway through her deposition was a question, I can't remember exactly what it was. It's something to do about, you know, their living situations in Hawaii, and we got kind of a funny answer from her.

It led one of the lawyers to ask her directly, are you living with Steve right now? And she said, no. So what made Steve choose that specific time to serve Christine with divorce papers? We may never know that answer, but afterwards the tide began to turn. Steve initiated divorce proceedings in Hawaii where he lived at the time, and Hawaii happens to be a state where divorce filings are part of the public record. Some of those filings caught the eyes of a journalist. I'm Chris Oshir. I'm a senior investigative reporter with both the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette. You heard Chris earlier in this podcast. He's an award-winning journalist who writes an ongoing series about Colorado's dysfunctional family court system. About three years ago, I got interested in the family court system,

so there's probably not a week goes by now that I don't hear from someone who's got to complain about the family court system. Even though Chris writes about cases like Cindy and Steve's, he learned about it after the verdict. I was talking to another mother about another case, and she said, oh, there's this crazy civil litigation in which a mother won a defamation case for a lot of money. And then I looked into it and sure enough, that was the case. Cindy's been pretty much indicated with a $21.3 million defamation verdict. What happened after that $21.3 million verdict is what caught Chris's attention. That's when he started following Steve and Christine's divorce proceedings. One filing from Christine stood out. A voice actor will read from that. Since she was ambushed by husband with this divorce, she has been focusing on rebuilding her life. After being financially cut off from the resources she had enjoyed for over five years,

and realizing that almost everything he has ever told her was a lie. Almost everything he has ever told her was a lie. Those words in Christine's filing raised a lot of eyebrows. I said, you know the day that Christine turns on Steve, it'll explode. And when it did, I mean, it came out. You know, it was a tidal wave. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile with your summer price forecast. Now, unfortunately, we're seeing rising costs across the country with possibility that big wireless hates you 100%. Now, over here at Mint Mobile, we're seeing sunny skies and dropping prices every plan to just $15 a month. Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 month plan required, $15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow in at work as busy, see terms. Now, I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty.

The famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful beauty makes powerful and effective skincare simple, and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types, and it's designed to work as a complete skincare system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen, which contains all five of her best-selling products, including the amazing youth-activating melancholy serum. This next generation serum has the power of melancholy stem cell technology. It's melancholy stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing 5 star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory 5P system, free gifts, free shipping, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. All of that available at MeaningfulBeauty.com

This is Ashley Akinetti from the Almost Amos Podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resortpass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool, spa, massage, without booking an overnight stay. I may have only been 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. I'm thinking this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resortpass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury, resort day passes, start at just $25. Once you post your daycation, people are going to ask where you are. Go to resortpass.com, slash almost famous, and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resortpass.com slash almost famous.

When Cindy's ex-husband Steve served his second wife Christine with divorce papers, it was a dramatic end to their relationship. Their divorce filings contained explosive allegations, information that cast this whole story in a different light. Journalist Chris Oshar. That relationship had disintegrated, and there were allegations that he was the sex addict himself. In a court filing, Christine alleged that Steve was a sex addict, and that during the defamation litigation with Cindy and Kenny, Steve sought to cover up his addiction by funneling money through Christine. You know, talk about glass houses. Christine's court filings claimed that Steve sent her $150,000 to secretly pay for his sex addiction counseling and marriage therapy. In doing so, Christine wrote that it was a way to hide that from Cindy, and there was more.

There were even allegations that he was promising her $2 million to tailor her testimony. Christine made that allegation against Steve, and with it, she attached an 11-page letter Steve purportedly sent to her in the months leading up to the trial. Now, he contends that she manufactured the evidence, but he did say, I believe in a court filing, that yeah, this was an effort to evade a prenuptial that he had with her. Chris's article states that Steve filed court documents stating that the 11-page apology letter is fraudulent, and that Steve never wrote that letter. Steve alleged that Christine was trying to escape from a pre-napp agreement she signed that restricted her to only receiving a few $100,000 in the event of the divorce. His filing said the letter was concocted as part of what he claims were Christine's continuing efforts to extort $7 million from him for what he calls baseless accusations.

I don't know if you would obtain that, but it's quite a letter. We did obtain a copy of Steve's purported letter to Christine. A voice actor will read excerpts. My darling wife, I have not written you enough over the years. I hope this is not the last letter that I write to you as my wife. To say that I have failed you and our family is an understatement. The letter talks about Steve being on the dating app Tinder. I was truly put on Tinder without my knowledge. I acted horrified, but appreciated some attention, attention that I had not had in years. I straight further into the wilderness of superficial self-absorption. It was addictive. At that time I was trying to meet people in Denver, sinking deeper into the shallow cesspool in which I lived. It was then that I met you. I thought to myself, here's a beautiful woman who is divorcing and simply wanting a wealthy guy to manipulate or use.

The more that I got to know you, the more that I could not believe that you were actually real. You were married. You were still wearing your ring when you came to my house the first time. Most people that I knew simply wanted to use me or wanted something from me. Money, time, information. I do not know how many women I dated or were physically involved with the early stages of our relationship. I lied to you. I then covered up with another lie. You are a siren, a vixen, a supplicant, and a lover. So why then Google nude celebrities when I have everything in my bed? I have no reason other than perverted curiosity. I did not hire or engage with prostitutes. Yes, I went to the massage place in Denver. No, I did not get a blowjob. No, I don't expect you to believe me. No, I cannot prove it.

I lied and lied again when I was given the opportunity to come clean. I'm glad the lie is over. I'm grateful that I have been exposed for my transgressions. I will go to my grave regretting the choices I have made. I do not believe that I'm a pathological liar and or maniacal demon trying to destroy your life and that of your son. According to Christine's court filing, Steve wrote this letter in March of 2023, which is significant because that was right after the deposition of District Attorney Matt Carzen. As you know, D.A.'s testimony became a key part of Cindy and Kenny's case against Steve. And the next part of Steve's purported letter addressed that. I'm no longer going to hide anything from you. I do not expect you to believe this statement. I'm not saying this because of litigation. After Carzen, I am absolutely terrified of what is going to happen. I will not lie about that.

I also acknowledge that I cannot get to a settlement or win without your help. I do not need to tell you this. When lose or draw, I want to be your husband. Easiest thing to have done would be to try to negotiate a financial settlement and legal cooperation agreement. If we win, I want to be in your arms. If we lose, I want to be in your arms. I just want to be in your arms. I know that I do not want to end this. And I want to believe that you do not want it to end. I do not have it in me to continue this lie and fight. I would like to propose some options as I see them. Also in the letter, Steve allegedly offered to make a deal. Here's option one. If you are done, I accept my consequence. Your prenup gives you a few hundred thousand dollars. Given the situation, that is not fair.

If you are really done, I will agree to splitting any settlement if there is one from Cindy with you 50-50 after fees. I will immediately give you two million dollars. Along with those two million dollars, Steve allegedly offered Christine a 10% profit interest in a company he was part of. If I'm lucky, that will give you another approximately one million dollars in two to three years. I will transfer the two million dollars immediately to you in exchange for your cooperation in the legal and not telling people about my addiction, including sharing this information with people on Maui. I am also requesting that you delete your evidence as I now have a serious discovery issue. I would ask that you support the kids and me by doing what you have done so far in the litigation. Their truth and financial futures should not be punished because of my mistakes.

I will also agree to access to the boys. If you want to see them, talk to them, go on a trip, you are welcome to do so. I also recommend not starting divorce proceedings until after the trial. That trial, of course, was Cindy Kenny's civil trial. So according to this letter, Steve allegedly offered Christine two million dollars in exchange for her cooperation in that civil trial with the promise of more money should he prevail. He allegedly asked Christine to delete evidence and hold off on divorce proceedings until after the trial. That allegedly was option one. If you are not done, but want to work on things and not be in the same house, then we can find a home for you on Maui. I will buy it, put it in your name. The risk for you is if you decide in a year that you are leaving, then you will have to sell the house.

So effectively, your money is tied up waiting to sell before you can buy another and who knows what state of the market will be. And here was Steve's alleged third option. Stay together. This is the preferred option for me. I commit to full transparency and getting mental health treatment. The mental health treatment will take time. I think that Seattle is a really good start for us. I do not want to divorce. I want to spend the balance of my life with you and become the version of the husband that you deserve and that I so desperately want to be. I want to create and live my life with the woman I chose. If you give a chance, I can demonstrate this through my words and deeds. This longing is not out of fear of litigation. I want to work less and live more. I want to be your husband and partner.

And that's how the 11 page type letter ended. There was no signature. And despite everything in the letter that Steve allegedly wrote, it was Steve who wound up filing to divorce Christine. A voice actor will read from Christine's filing. And for clarity, we're substituting the first names of the parties with husband, wife and ex-wife. These communications and efforts were aroused by Steve, done to simply placate her into providing favorable testimony at the Civil Litigation trial and to avoid having her filing for divorce in Colorado during the pendency of the Civil Litigation. Had she ever had the whole truth or had access to the whole story, she would never have uprooted her life and child to serve the interests of a liar and manipulator. The chaos of Steve's legal battles, kids traumas and move to Maui have caused Christine's life to be upended in every way imaginable.

The sacrifices she has made were catastrophic for her and her son. Without help from this court, Christine will likely continually live to suffer the results of Steve's fraud, both on herself and on his ex-wife Cindy. Cindy and her lawyers were following Christine's filings. In her divorce pleading, she actually did say how she was manipulated. I appreciated that. That she recognized how she might have been, you know, misled. I'm sure her conscience was bothering her at that point when she wrote the pleading, but your conscience at some point should have directed you to make a phone call to me to say, I need to get you and your kids back together. I was part of this mess. That's where I draw the line with Christine. Like you said some nice things, but why did it take you so long? You allowed the kids to live with him. You didn't report it. To say this man is not a good parent, this man's a manipulator and liar. So I have a lot of mixed feelings about that.

By May of 2024, the judge and Steve and Christine's divorce case sealed the record, but it was too late. Copies of these documents were already in circulation. And then, about a month later, we got an email from a woman with a story to tell. And that woman was Christine, Steve's ex-wife. Do you hear that? That's how I'm right. That means that summer is officially here. It means that grown adults just sprint into the street for a frozen dessert shaped like a cartoon. But this summer, mid-mobile has a better tree. Every plan, including unlimited, is $15 a month. And unlike ice cream, it won't drip down your wrist or look nothing like the picture. Does anyone have any cash? Give it a try at minmobile.com slash switch. A front payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-1 plan required. $15 a month equivalent to taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Now I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty. The famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skincare simple. And it's loved by millions of women.

It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types and it's designed to work as a complete skin care system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen, which contains all five of her best-selling products, including the amazing youth activating melanchero. This next generation serum has the power of melancholy stem cell technology. It's melancholy stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory 5P system, free gifts, free shipping and a 60-day money-back guarantee. All of that available at MeaningfulBeauty.com. Thinking about selling your car? Start with a real offer worth real money from CarMax. Then take seven days to compare your offer and when you're ready, accept your offer and get paid. CarMax will even pick up your car. That's it. No haggling, no hassles, no pressure. Just a real offer. Worth real money from CarMax.

Get all the details in a real offer today at CarMax.com. Want to drive? CarMax. At home, pick up not available in all locations. Distance restrictions and a fee may apply. This is Ashley Akinetti from the almost famous podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resort pass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool spa massage without booking an overnight stay. Listen, I may have only been 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. I'm thinking this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resort pass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury resort day passes start at just $1,500. Once you post your daycation, people are going to ask where you are.

Go to resort pass.com slash almost famous and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resort pass.com slash almost famous. The divorce of Cindy's ex-husband Steve and his second wife Christine took a turn in the spring of 2024. As you heard, Christine's filing included a letter she claimed Steve wrote. In that letter, Steve purportedly expressed concern about testimony from the district attorney and allegedly offered Christine $2 million to testify favorably on his behalf. Cindy read a copy of that letter. I read this document and it's just like how Steve writes. It's all single space. There's no paragraph breaks. It's just diary of the mouth of this kind of confessional of his bad behavior.

Any did this to me once to please stay with me. Don't leave. I know I could be a better husband, but man the things that were exposed in that letter. I even felt sorry for when I started hearing about that. But this story gets even stranger. Here's Kenny's lawyer, Chris Decker. Steve was taking the position that it was fraudulent, that it was not an authentic document, that it was some creation by Christine. And Christine of course took the position that it was a legitimate document written by Steve to her and it outlined a parade of horribles that he was admitting to. He was essentially pleading for forgiveness to Christine and admitting his wrong doings. In a court filing, Steve said the letter was written by Christine and added quote whose prolific journaling and writing is well known and documented.

Steve's filing added, no one other than Christine had ever accused him of any sexual impropriety. Steve further noted that if Christine filed that fabricated letter in their ongoing divorce proceeding, he would file counterclaims for defamation and theft. And then on June 15th, 2024, about a month after the judge sealed the records, we received an email from Christine. A voice actor will read part of what she wrote. Hi there. I have been listening to your podcasts and continue to feel that I need to reach out. First and foremost, to express my gratitude for the courage of what you've created. Thanks to your efforts, I know I'm not alone. I am 15 months into my discoveries and I'm doing my best to break all ties and heal. Fun in your podcast has certainly offered community and support. I would love nothing more than an opportunity to offer my thanks.

Here's Kenny's lawyer, Chris Decker. The fact that Christine reached out does surprise me a little bit. I'm not sure what story she thought needed to be told or what she would say if she were interviewed. So I'm not surprised that this story found you. I'm a little surprised at how it found you. We've had a conversation with Christine, but she has not gone on the record with us. And a week before this podcast started airing, we got an email from her. A voice actor will read part of that message. Thank you so much for reaching out and offering to include my perspective in your production. I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and share the complete background of my situation. Because my legal situation remains active and ongoing, I will not be able to meet your current deadline. I believe your production will be far more accurate and compelling once all parties, perspectives and evidence are fully considered.

I regret that my time frame does not align with your schedule. All the best, Christine. At the time of this recording, Christine's divorce case with Steve is still ongoing. It's tough divorcing Steve. He does not make a divorce at all easy. Both sides are fighting over Christine's prenup and they're fighting over something else too. Christine is on the hook for part of that multi-million dollar judgment, the one the jury awarded Cindy and Kenny in their civil trial. Christine's been ordered to pay one million dollars of that amount. Here's Kenny's lawyer, Chris Decker again. She appealed the judgment against her and the court of appeals recently issued an order upholding the judgment and denying the grounds for her appeal. After the court of appeals denied her claims, she filed a pro-say pleading which is an appellate right to request the appeals court for a further hearing on that appeal.

I would liken it to a bit of a Hail Mary. So you can understand why Christine is not talking to us. That brings us back to Cindy's kids. Over the past couple episodes, we really haven't talked about the three children. By the time Cindy and Kenny won that 21.3 million dollar verdict, it had been almost three years since Cindy had been allowed to contact them. I couldn't have contact with my kids. I couldn't email them. I couldn't text them. I couldn't do anything. And that wasn't by choice. It was by court order. I was a complete no contact court order starting in January of 21. No contact whatsoever. Throughout those years, Cindy has been in court multiple times trying to regain parenting time with her kids, but each time she was told no. I guarantee you if I had just dropped those lawsuits and dropped my appeal and never contested anything, then I could have my kids back. And that's wrong.

She tries not to think about the number of birthdays and holidays she's missed with her kids. She also wonders if her kids knew the reason she didn't call. Didn't send Christmas presents or even a birthday card. If I would have reached out and even sent a card, I would have gone to jail. That's contempt. I wasn't willing to go to jail to send a birthday card. In fact, for a long time, the only way Cindy was able to see her kids was on their school's website. I was so excited to see him. I was like, oh my gosh. Look at my daughter. She looks so beautiful. She was playing tennis and volleyball. I was like, oh, she's real lanky too. All those are perfect sports for her. And then the boys, they did a couple performances at the school. So I was able to watch those performances. Once the jury found that Steve and his wife, Christine, had made up the child abuse allegations, Cindy thought this would finally change things.

So we were already kind of celebrating, thinking, oh, we just turned a major corner here. This is all going to start going our way. Now, but why? Why has the court kept the children away from their mother? The only thing worse than sex abuse is convincing a child that they were abused. That is a form of abuse. And yet, where am I kids today? With the same person that convinced them that this happened? Like Cindy, her step sister, Lisa, has nearly run out of patience. You can read all the documents in the world about the case and it doesn't make sense. Lisa thought as soon as the DA dropped child abuse charges against Kenny, Cindy would get her kids back. You just think, okay, finally, now the kids are coming back, right? Nope.

And then a year later, when DHS reversed their findings of abuse, okay, well now for sure you'll get the kids back. Nope, still not back. Why? There's something wrong with what happened here. But there are some wrongs that can never be made right. You spend years and a shits on money to prove the truth and you do it and you still haven't got kids back. That's what I'm up against. I'm up against a judge who cannot see she's made a mistake. The central victims in this story are those three kids who've been caught in middle between mom and dad. And that's just the position kids should ever be put in. It's a zero sum game, one side wins and the other side loses and in the end the people who lose the most are the kids. Cindy's effectively been erased from her kids' lives.

So I don't think I'm going to have a relationship with my kids ever again. That's next time on the final episode of Birden of Guilt. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying Birden of Guilt, subscribe, rate and review the series with 5 Stars hopefully. That helps other people find our show. Are you curious about what the people involved in this look like? Do you want to hear bonus content? Just check out our Instagram account at Glass Podcasts. You can reach out to the Birden of Guilt team at Birden of GuiltPod at gmail.com. That's Birden of GuiltPod at gmail.com.

Birden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeartPodcast. This series is executive produced and hosted by me, Nancy Glass, produced by Todd Gans. Also produced by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning, additional production support provided by Carrie Hartman. Thank you to our voice actors, James Palombo, Lucy Kohler and Tanner Robbins. Our story editor is Monique LeBord. Our associate producer is Jade Abdul-Moleek. Our production manager is Kristen Milkury. Our IHAR team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crindcheck, audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Audio mixing and mastering by Anna McLean and Matt Delbeckio. The Birden of Guilt team is composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by Mib music.

For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts. Some people use chatGPT to answer questions. Others use it to get real work done. With chatGPT work, you bring the goal, plus real inputs like briefs, notes, files, feedback, data and project plans. It can help turn them into an analysis, tracker, deck outline, prototype, or workflow you can review and keep shaping. You stay in control, giving direction and choosing the final output. Put chatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on plus and pro plans. This episode is brought to you by Bobcat. They started the compact equipment industry through grit, determination and a whole lot of,

think we can't do that? Watch us. They set standards, broke records, empowered people to build bigger and higher, to dig deeper, to make the impossible possible. We've all been there, with doubters telling us what we can't do. Who cares what they think? We don't need their permission, we're forgiveness. We just get things done. So go ahead and doubt me, judge me, challenge me. But when the time comes, watch me. Bobcat. These days everybody's searching for ways to save on insurance, scrolling comparison sides digging through tips, chasing deals, but Liberty Mutual makes it simple. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. And when you bundle those savings, really start to come through. It's insurance built for real people, with a team that helps you keep what matters most. Money. No hassle. Just confidence that your coverage is customized with savings in mind. Get a quote at LibertyMutual.com or with your local independent agent.

Sometimes the road of life goes a little off-road. And the 2026 Nissan Rogue is ready for anything the day brings. With all-wheel drive and five different drive modes, it's designed for adventure, with room for the whole family. And since the 2026 Rogue has Google built in and a 12.3-inch display, you can just pick a destination, punch up a soundtrack, and take off. Adventure is waiting for you and the 2026 Nissan Rogue. This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

More episodes

More from Burden of Guilt

View all episodes →