When on disability, don't post online "Today as I danced myself silly..."

[Liberal_in_LA]

Dorothy McGurk was hurt in a 1997 car accident and was awarded a sum of $850 per month for the rest of her life that is until her ex found photos of her in belly dancing gear and posting on her blog how she loves to dance. Now the ex who has been identified as Brian McGurk who also had to give up their house wants to know why a so severely injured woman is able to dance every day and work on her blog continuously. Now Dorothy McGurk has said she just posed in the belly dancing gear and her injuries are real will have to convince a court.

Well, guess who stumbled upon this blog?

The ex-husband who had been paying that alimony.

-----------------------------

Therefore, he tangoed his former wife right into court, and though she said the art form was physical therapy for her detriment, Judge Catherine DiDomenico didn’t buy it, blew McGurk’s disability claim off the floor, and reduced those lifetime alimony payments to $400 per month, ceasing them in two years. Miss Belly Dancer, in addition, has to give her ex $5,000 plus interest for attorney fees. She was also told to move out of her home as he was given 60 percent of its value. (They were married for 11 years.)

http://www.newstalk.ie/2011/programmes/all-programmes/moncrieff/seans-opening-story-belly-dancing-swindler/

"Today as I danced myself silly, I lifted my head and elongated my neck as I swirled around," she wrote in another post. "And then it happened, I got really, really high."

Thomas Kyle, a lawyer for Brian McGurk, said the blog posts convinced Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Catherine DiDomenico the dancer was fit enough to fend for herself.

"She told outright lies," Kyle said. "If she could blog for hours, if she could dance the day away in Manhattan, then how is it she couldn't hold down a job?"

In one Facebook entry, a friend asked Dorothy McGurk why she had not posted photos of herself from a recent belly-dancing performance.

"Gotta be careful what goes on line pookies," she answered. "The ex would love to fry me with that."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/16/2011-04-16_wife_stripped_of_settlement_money_when_exhusband_sees_bellydancing_blog_that_pro.html

[Texasgal]

1. I know I will be flamed by this

but I agree with the ruling. There are so many people who are not able to work and are denied disability. This woman is obviously bucking the system and I have NO Problem with them cutting her off.

Let the flames commence.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I don't think you will be flamed. I think she was working the system also.

[beyurslf]

5. Well if you get flamed, throw me in too. She needs to get busted.

[w8liftinglady]

23. as one who was on disability after brain surgery,I agree.

There are so many who need it. deceitful recipients should be punished.

[Mojorabbit]

31. I have MS

and am on disability. I have months go by when I can attend belly dance class and make it thru 30 min of the class once a week and am encouraged to do so by my neurologists. It brings me great joy and keeps my muscles from atrophying. Then I have another flare.
Right now I am back at the starting gate after a flare and can't dance for 2 minutes let alone be steady on my feet. At neither point was I in any shape to work an eight hour shift.

I spend a lot of time at my computer which is beside my bed and I can lay down and surf.
That does not mean I am always in the best shape with mental fog/fatigue to post or if I do it is particularly interesting. It keeps my brain active also with encouragement by my neurologists.
If this is all the judge went by then I disagree with his ruling. Belly dancing is a wonderful exercise and I am full of joy when I am able to dance. It is all the more poignant because I know that at any time I will be flat on my back again and unable to participate.

I can't do taichi because I cannot balance on one leg. I find yoga difficult because my upper body strength is almost nil but I can belly dance and I miss it.

[tammywammy]

34. If your doctor is encouraging it that's one thing

This woman's doctor didn't.

"Confronted with the damning evidence, Dorothy McGurk told the court she was prescribed belly dancing as treatment for her injuries - a statement her doctor contradicted on the stand."

[Mojorabbit]

35. The particular exercise is not the point

Every neurologist I have ever had encouraged me to exercise as much as possible to keep my muscles from atrophying. Every disabled person is encouraged to keep as fit as possible. I am just saying that the evidence presented in the article should not have been enough for the judge. She should have been examined by an independant specialist and the decision should have been science based. As an aside, I have yet to find a neurologist who remembers much of anything from visit to visit.

[4lbs]

3. People need to realize that what they post online is essentially read by everyone in the world.

So, if you don't want a particular person or entity even sniffing around it, don't post it at all.

There is ZERO privacy on the Internet, on a blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, etc.

[JBoy]

4. "Gotta be careful what goes on line", she posts on Facebook.

:rofl:

[Cerridwen]

6. I wonder how many dozens, scores, hundreds of people who

truly need disability and are disabled, will now be painted with a "broad brush" because of this woman?

Sad, isn't it; how often those who are in need are tarnished by those who game the system?

And, as per usual, the corporate media makes a point to make normal the abnormal. *sigh*

[Texasgal]

7. In fairness there are tons of stories

out there of people who NEED disabilty and don't get it.

[Cerridwen]

9. I know. That, too is sad and horrific and inhuman.

I hate stories like the one in the OP because they're unusual but made to appear the "norm."

These kinds of stories are what made it possible for reagan to disparage "welfare queens" and which helped catapult the hate-filled idea that "poor, stupid" people were responsible for the economic melt-down due to their unpaid mortgages rather than look to the hedge funds and "exotic" financial products.

I think I hate this kind of "reporting" most of all.

[999998th word]

10. Yup what[s]he said ^

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. I know several ex spouses that have regretted what ended up on line

[joshcryer]

11. Tried to find the photos to no avail.

No doubt she deleted them offline.

She claims to be a "Reikki spiritual healer and can “channel God’s light to facilitate healing”." :rofl:

[Lance_Boyle]

12. Good - alimony is a travesty of justice anyway.

It's nothing but delayed-payment prostitution and should not be tolerated.

[dawg]

28. I don't think that's necessarily true.

I can see situations where *temporary* alimony might be necessary in order to ease the transition of a low-earning spouse to single life. Especially if the low-earner took themselves out of the workplace in order to raise children and take care of the home.

I don't think it should ever be life-long, because people can find jobs and should ultimately be responsible for their own livelihood. But there are circumstances where it probably should be employed on a temporary basis - particularly when the low-earning spouse is abandoned.

[Book Lover]

32. Marriage is prostitution?

Wow, radical feminist theory coming from such an unlikely source. End Times...

[SoCalDem]

13. My son was on disability when he had back surgery and had a guy actually following him around

watching him.. He has a 9 inch incision up his spine & had to get around with a WALKER for a month and then a 4-footed cane, but because he was mid-20's they were just sure he was faking it.. Once morning when he went to get the paper, it was raining & he flagged the guy & invited him in for coffee.. The guy was embarrassed & my son "sweet-talked" him into coming in for coffee & then showed him the scar and the "reacher" he had to use to get things from the cupboard..and the list of doctor's appointments & the meds he had to take...the guy never came back to watch him again..

[queenjane]

14. I know 3 people who are getting disability, and shouldn't

Two of them are relatively young men who, for cash under the table, cut down trees, do heavy yard work, put roofs on houses, etc. They're on SSDI, not private employer disability, so as far as I can tell, no one checks on them. (One of them WAS on employer disability for awhile, and their P.I.s would call my house, asking if I'd seen him doing anything physical outside.)

The other is a female friend who says she has fibromyalgia and can't work, yet she does work for cash payments, goes out drinking and dancing 4 - 5 times a week, does volunteer work, etc. She could certainly hold an office job (the work she's always done), but she says she doesn't want to.

My former boss now works for Health & Human Services in our state, vetting disability applications. Want to know why severely and truly disabled people have to wait YEARS to even have their cases heard? Because every single application, no matter how ridiculous, has to be processed, meaning the HHS rep has to schedule doc's appts for them, call and remind them of the appt, make another appt when the applicant doesn't show for the first one, etc. The backlog is years long.

People who cheat the system are criminals, in my opinion. They're exploiting the system and holding up bennies for those who really need them.

[leeroysphitz]

15. Why do some women feel so entitled to their former spouses income that they will stoop to deceit

for years on end just to avoid having to work?

Child support I understand but alimony? What century is this?

[originalpckelly]

18. Just exactly how I feel.

And I wonder how many women have to pay for their male spouses, right?

I'm gay too, so I don't have to worry about this, but still.

It's fucked up.

[spooky3]

22. One of my friends pays alimony to her ex-hubby.

Anytime the woman earns more than the man, this can happen.

Some states, like Indiana, forbid alimony, even if the spouse stayed home with a disabled child for x years and has no salable skills, and the other spouse makes a fabulous salary.

[LynneSin]

20. I worked with a woman like that and although I understood she was hurt, she only made it worst

Her husband was cheating on her. When they went to court she went after every penny and then some from him. Then when she found out he moved in with his mistress she opened up the case and went for more money and limited access to the kid. The thing is this - he had to move in with the girlfriend because all of his paycheck was going to the ex-wife. I never said anything because the woman was my supervisor but I did feel bad for the guy.

[Rage for Order]

16. Wow, that's some sweet poetic justice!

Maybe she can get a job as a belly dancing instructor when her alimony and disability payments cease!

:rofl:

[originalpckelly]

17. And why should the husband have to pay for her?

If you have kids, I can understand child support.

But why should he be responsible for this woman, even if she was disabled?

Would a female partner be expected to do the same for a male partner?

This is fucking ridiculous nonsense that goes on in America.

[jeff47]

25. It does work both ways

Would a female partner be expected to do the same for a male partner?

If the female partner makes more money than the male partner, yes. However, glass ceilings and the tendency to assign child rearing to the womenfolk make that a relatively rare occurrence.

[Nevernose]

27. There's an inherent promise in marriage

The promise of taking care of someone financially to one degree or another.

So I get the concept of alimony, especially if one person has been more career oriented and the other more parenting/homemaking. I get the alimony in those cases.

What I'm opposed to is lifetime alimony, where one spouse feels entitled to be taken care of for all eternity by the other spouse. That's kind of the whole point of a divorce, is it not? That the two people aren't together anymore?

[renate]

29. I think alimony payments should take circumstances into account

I've heard of men having to pay alimony to wives whose affairs caused the divorce--that's just ridiculous. On the other hand, if the wealthier partner has an affair and decides he (it's usually a he) wants to get a divorce and trade up, I think the non-affair-having partner should get alimony for a longer time than if it's a mutual "irreconcilable differences" decision, since it wasn't her idea to end the relationship.

I suppose the question of just how much an abandoned partner should get for emotional suffering turns into a murky thing, though.

[tammywammy]

19. I'm glad the ex found out this stuff and she has to pay him back

Fraud is fraud. If she can dance every day, she can get a job. Maybe she should start charging for her belly dancing.

"DiDomenico stripped McGurk of her settlement last week and ordered her to pay her ex-husband $5,000 plus interest for lawyer's fees.

McGurk was also told to move out of the couple's house, and her ex-husband was awarded 60% of its value because she "worked only two years of this 11-year marriage," the judge wrote in her decision."

[nichomachus]

21. I used to work in family court

We had a woman who was claiming she needed more child support from the father of her child, because she didn't have enough to live on. When the court date came, the father came in with print-outs of her MySpace page where she bragged about the boob job she had recently had -- with photographic evidence -- and about her weekends partying where she couldn't remember how much booze and how many pills she did.

Needless to say, she lost.

[Sheepshank]

24. She deserved what she got

I don't think the OP is making it seem like this woman's actions are the norm. On the contrary, it's describing to me the few that slip through the net, unless someone is motivatined to 'tattle' it woul continue. It's exactly these types of fraud cases that have made the systems so oppressive a financial burden to the US, that the fraud cases should be pursued more vigorously. I know and ex cop that does insurance fraud as his 2nd pt job. And man, he has some obvious cases that are slam dunk and don't even make it to court. The fraud-person agrees to pay back $X amount and walks away....and I believe considers themselves lucky they didn't have to go to court!

[hunter]

26. I know some people who are billionaires...

... who got it ALL by fraud, by stealing it from taxpayers and insurance rate payers.

How come we never hear these stories about them?

Throw a few of those fabulously wealthy rat bastards in prison and confiscate their ill-gotten assets. Then make them do real jobs on supervised work release, raking sewage ponds or something. Then maybe we'd have the resources to get adequate aide to people with actual disabilities.

Nope, we never here about people cheating the system for millions or billions. Instead we hear stories like this which are meant to smear everyone who collects disability payments of one sort or another.

Even in this story it's quite possible the woman is unemployable. As a society what do we do with unemployable people? Oh yeah, we toss them out onto the streets and say it's their own damned fault.

[Book Lover]

33. Thank you (nm)

[joeunderdog]

30. How about, "Don't claim disability if you can dance and blog all day."

That's what's wrong with this picture.