fournlau (original poster member #71803) posted at 4:16 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
The title of the article is "LI judges's 'groundbreaking' divorce case ruling makes giving partner STD a form of domestic violence in NY"
Anyway, the article states that the judge awarded the wife 100% of the marital assets because her husband knowingly gave her a life altering form of STD.
The WH in question had a lot of other negative qualities, but among them he was a serial cheater who continued to sleep with his wife even after knowing he had an STD, which he transferred to her. She had to have surgery, but will live with the consequences for the rest of her life. I believe she will always have to take medication for it.
The judge ruled that because of his actions and the consequences, it is a form of Domestic Violence. This information was used by the judge to determine what to award the wife. In this case, everything.
The ruling is "huge," said lawyer Byron Divins, whose firm represented the wife.
"No court has ever really, as far as I’m aware, made [sexually transmitted diseases] the center of their decision," said Divins, of the Williston Park-based Capetola & Divins. The decision is based on a 2020 amendment to New York law which lets courts weigh domestic violence when determining how to split up marital assets.
The judge’s ruling is going to make cheating spouses "a little more careful" when they mess around, said matrimonial attorney Ankit Kapoor, whose office is based in Times Square.
I'm not so sure about this statement, since people who cheat never think about the consequences. If anything, I feel this kind of thing might make it a bit more dangerous for the unsuspecting BS.
What do you guys think about this development?
Bigger ( Attaché #8354) posted at 4:53 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
I think it’s fair and great.
The KEY issue is that he KNOWINGLY gave her the disease. To me, that’s like KNOWINGLY point a revolver at her head and pull the trigger in some belief that only one or two of the chambers are loaded.
The article mentions this as one of the "profound acts of domestic violence", so the STD was not the sole reason for the heavy-handed judgement.
This is the kind of guy that I hope rot in hell.
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone." Epictetus
torso1500 ( member #83345) posted at 5:34 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
seems fair enough in the context of fault-based divorce. Knowingly giving someone an STD is a criminal offense in some cases.
crazyblindsided ( member #35215) posted at 5:39 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
Good there should be some kind of payback for this and should be a criminal offense. My xWS unknowingly gave me 2 STDs but knowingly slept with women without a condom while married 
thank god they were curable STDs. Glad I gave my xWS the boot!
fBS/fWS(me):52 Mad-hattered after DD (2008)
XWS:55 Serial Cheater, Diagnosed NPD
DD(22) DS(19)
XWS cheated the entire M spanning 19 years
Discovered D-Days 2006,2008,2012, False R 2014
Separated 9/2019; Divorced 8/2024
OhItsYou ( member #84125) posted at 5:51 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
I think it’s a great step in the right direction.
I don’t know if the 100% asset allocation is going to
Hold up or not though. Hell I don’t even know if someone can appeal a judges decision in a divorce or not.
torso1500 ( member #83345) posted at 6:04 PM on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
the 100% award applies to "marital assets that are subject to equitable division" according to the article "STI Transmission & Divorce: A Form of Domestic Violence" so sounds like not necessarily all the assets. The article also mentions that the husband was/is serving a prison sentence, but it doesn't say for what crime.
BraveSirRobin ( member #69242) posted at 8:56 PM on Monday, April 6th, 2026
The WS was described as "a violent drug abuser with a long rap sheet," including persistent death threats, pulling a gun on his wife and child in the middle of a hospital, and possession of multiple illegal weapons. Their assets were also minimal. I doubt we can extrapolate the inequitable distribution in this scenario to a straightforward divorce case.
The article also mentions that in NY, an offender can be prosecuted criminally for knowingly transmitting an STD, though there's no record of that being pursued in this case.
torso1500 ( member #83345) posted at 11:20 PM on Monday, April 6th, 2026
The court did make a finding specific to the STD transmission. So while it may not support a specific award in a future case without the other acts, what it does is set a precedent that knowing STD transmission from an extramarital affair counts as DV for the purposes of the equitable division statute.
Whether the transmission was prosecuted criminally is not determinative (although it could be used in efforts to strengthen one's case in the divorce court). Different courts, different statutory basis, and likely different standard of proof.
Here is a quotation from the court's ruling:
"And the husband, after engaging [i]n an extramarital affair, thereafter having unprotected sexual intercourse with the wife, constitutes the appropriate degree of recklessness to conclude that the husband committed reckless endangerment. The court finds that the risk created by the husband's conduct was foreseeable, namely, that having unprotected sexual intercourse with someone not his spouse carried with it the risk of transmission of an STI and the court concludes that the husband’s conduct created a risk of physical injury, namely, the wife's excruciating pain and the cancer cells which developed. Lastly, the husband's unprotected sexual intercourse with someone not his spouse was a gross deviation from the standard of conduct of a married person"
