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Top court rejects jailed Pa. lawyer
H. Beatty Chadwick, held since 1995 in a property dispute with his ex-wife, said he still will fight on.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
It appears that H. Beatty Chadwick will not be giving up his job in the Delaware County Prison library any time soon.
The former Main Line lawyer lost another bid to leave jail yesterday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the
constitutionality of the civil contempt citation that has kept him behind bars since 1995 in a bitter property dispute with
his ex-wife.
Chadwick's 36-page petition asking the high court to review his case, which he wrote and filed earlier this year, was
one of 151 denied without comment by the court.
"It's disappointing but not a surprise," said Chadwick, 66, reached yesterday at work in the library. "They
don't grant [review of] that many cases... so the odds were not terrific."
The Supreme Court ruling basically closes the federal courts to Chadwick in his long campaign to overturn a Delaware County
judge's 1995 order that he remain behind bars until he purges himself of contempt by divulging the location of $2.5 million
in marital assets.
Chadwick has maintained that the money is gone: spent before his marriage ended to satisfy a debt to a Gibraltar partnership.
Lawyers for Chadwick's ex-wife, Barbara Applegate, a painter in New England, contend they have tracked the money through a
series of transactions to foreign accounts Chadwick controls.
Albert Momjian, Applegate's attorney, said the Supreme Court ruling puts Chadwick in charge of his future: "He holds
the keys to his jail cell. He can get out tomorrow if he wants."
Despite the legal setback, Chadwick sounded optimistic. He said he would focus his efforts on a new appeal in Pennsylvania
Superior Court to reverse the civil contempt citation.
Chadwick's Superior Court appeal contends that given the severity of his punishment for civil contempt, he should have
a jury trial and "other rights of one accused with a crime."
Chadwick holds the Pennsylvania record for the longest time in prison on a civil contempt citation and seems increasingly
likely to break the 10-year national record.
Chadwick's appeal raised an unsettled legal question: Is there any limit to how long a person can be punished for civil
contempt of court?
Unlike criminal contempt of court, which is usually limited by the length of the underlying criminal prosecution, civil
contempt punishments appear to be open-ended.
After a series of unsuccessful state court challenges, Chadwick seemed to have won when he filed a federal habeas corpus
appeal in 2000 contending that the Delaware County contempt citation had "crossed the line from coercive to punitive"
and violated his constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Norma L. Shapiro reluctantly agreed and ordered Chadwick set free, but Applegate's attorneys filed
an emergency appeal and got a stay of Shapiro's order.
Last August, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed Shapiro, ruling unanimously
that the question was not whether the contempt citation had become punitive rather than coercive, but one of "ability
to comply and inability to comply."
Unless Chadwick can show he is unable to comply with the Delaware County order to divulge the location of the $2.5 million,
the Third Circuit ruled, "there is no constitutional bar to Mr. Chadwick's indefinite confinement."
It was the Third Circuit ruling that Chadwick had tried to persuade the Supreme Court to review.
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2658 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
© 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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