An attempt to sort out the ruined marriage of Ronald and Belinda Clark is a legal and financial donnybrook.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published July 15, 2003
DADE CITY - Attorneys and witnesses exchanged barbs and allegations Monday in a five-hour hearing on the tattered marriage of Ronald and Belinda Clark, the former pastors of Living Water Church of Tampa.
As the two sides wrangled over temporary alimony, child support and visitation, Mrs. Clark's attorney, Jack Hoogewind, accusing her estranged husband of hiding money in offshore accounts.
Clark's attorney, Arnold Levine, called Hoogewind's allegations "scandalous and scurrilous statements."
Levine announced that his client filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Tampa court last week. Clark testified the couple owes up to $30,000 in credit card debt and is saddled with mortgages on a $500,000 Dade City ranch and a $275,000 home in the Celebration community.
Meanwhile, new church chairman Melvin Myer testified that the church is missing mortgage payments and has laid off employees, and attendance at services has plummeted from 1,500 in January to only 250 this month due to publicity over the Clarks' divorce.
Monday's hearing before Circuit Judge Linda Babb was the latest development in the split by the couple who founded the Tampa church in a hotel meeting room 15 years ago, then grew it to a multimillion-dollar complex along Interstate 4. There were terse exchanges throughout the hearing, and Babb more than once ordered both attorneys to stop talking over each other.
As the attorneys grilled witnesses, Hoogewind challenged Clark's assertion that he tithes 10 percent of his income to charity. According to the couple's tax returns, Hoogewind said the Clarks recorded $4,000 in gifts in 1998 despite reporting $355,000 in income, and reported $515 in gifts in 1999 when they reported $220,000 in income.
Clark said much of his giving was provided quietly to needy people, and was not reported to federal officials.
The bulge in the Clarks' 1998 income, Myer testified, came when church leaders, without the knowledge of church members, awarded the Clarks $392,000. Most of the money was to fund a retirement account for the couple.
Clark testified that about $90,000 was a bonus for the extra work he did for one of the church's missions.
The money became available when the church refinanced its debt, Myer said. He got a $40,000 commission as part of the restructuring, he said.
Mrs. Clark was fired earlier this year from her $70,000-a-year assistant pastor position at the church. Clark resigned as pastor last month.
Clark said he has since joined a worldwide ministry based in Chicago as an educational coordinator for about $60,000 a year.
Babb settled several issues, at least temporarily, for the couple.
The judge agreed to let Clark travel out of the country as part of his new job. She also said he must pay Mrs. Clark about $3,560 a month in alimony and child support.
