Three women, one man, three lawsuits

After the relationships ended, the real courting began.

By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer
Published July 15, 2007

Gloria Leopard, Suzanne Edwards and Elaine Barclay pose for a portrait. All three women had relations with Leon Dexter, who ended up suing them for money.
	[Times photo: Lara Cerri]

The end of nearly every relationship is marked by unresolved questions.

Most people write off these mysteries. They file them under "Love lost: experience gained."

But Leon Dexter has not always been a live-and-let-live kind of person. His relationship files really exist. They can be found in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Pinellas County, where Dexter has sued three of his former paramours.

Romance may die, but the legal system is forever.

- - -

This wooer of women is no Casanova with six-pack abs, flowing golden locks and wide, impish dimples.

Leon Dexter is 66 and lives alone in St. Petersburg. He is of English descent and has lived in Canada for most of his life. His blue eyes and slight accent lend his worn features an air of something unusual, handsome.

He says he has worked most of his life as a contractor. He also sold cars for a while. Most days he dresses in what look like unwashed T-shirts and rumpled shorts. On a recent afternoon when meeting with a reporter, mangled gray curls obscured his chin and mouth.

He is not a misogynist, he says calmly. He is a gentleman who still opens the door for members of the opposite sex.

His ideal woman would be sensual, romantic, loving, old-fashioned, beautiful, feminine and from a loving family, he says.

"I'm a not an ogre by any means," he says. "I'm a giver in this world."

Love has not given back in the way he would have liked. He divorced Wife No. 1, Myra, in 1995, after 25 years of marriage. She wanted to stay home and rest, he says. He wanted to explore the world.

He met Wife No. 2, Debra, after he moved to Florida in 1988. They divorced after two years.

Wife No. 3 - well, you'll have to wait a minute to hear about her. We have some court files to get through first.

- - -

The case of Dexter vs. Barclay began, like the others, with flowers and flattery.

This was three years ago. Dexter was working as a handyman on Elaine Barclay's new house in Gulfport when the flirting began. She brought him water while he worked on her fence; he said he admired her for installing her own fan. Their first date was at R Bar in Treasure Island. She paid. On the second date, he paid. He moved in two months later. The handyman became the man of the house.

He proposed on Christmas 2004, less than four months after they first met. She said yes and wore his ring, but they never got around to setting a date.

"It was beautiful in the beginning," Dexter said. They went boating, had dinner out, hung out at neighborhood bars. When he got hurt in a car accident, Barclay gave him sponge baths and lent him $5,000 to buy a new car. He paid it back.

Barclay agreed things were great at first. But after the car accident he became critical and demanding, she says. He told her she spent too much time talking with her family. And he didn't seem grateful for the sponge baths.

His side? He sold his beloved boat because she said she hated the thing. She acted as if she thought she was better than him because she was working and he was retired.

"She had this too-big-for-your-britches attitude," he said. "Nothing I could do would please her."

After nearly two years, she gave back his engagement ring and gave him a week to move out.

Four months later, Barclay's doorbell rang. A server had dropped off court papers by her front door. Dexter was suing her. He wanted $3,520 for the cabinets he had installed in her kitchen and some other work he had done on her house, as well as court fees, if needed. It was all work he had done while living there as her fiance.

The handyman was back, with a bill.

"I was so shocked, so angry," Barclay said. "It was like, gee, can you believe this guy?"

Tacky? Vindictive? Not at all, Dexter says.

"She always said she would pay," he said of the work he had done.

- - -

Barclay's shock and anger turned into pure disbelief when she found out from a mutual friend that Dexter had done exactly the same thing to another former girlfriend.

She got Gloria Leopard's address and showed up at her house in St. Petersburg one Saturday morning.

"I know you don't know me, but we have someone in common," she remembers saying. "Leon's suing me."

Leopard shot back, "Oh, you, too?"

And that wasn't all of it. Leopard said Dexter had sued one of his former wives, too.

Three relationships, three bad breakups, three trips to court.

That was when Barclay had a sickening realization. She was never the love of his life. She was just another defendant.

"You feel you've found this polished gem and he thinks it's wonderful that you're an independent woman with a brain," she said. "He tells you, 'I'll take care of you, I'll kiss your toes, I'll cook for you, I'll do the laundry,' and it's all a lie."

- - -

Four weeks after Dexter sued her, Barclay met with Leopard and the ex-wife, Suzanne Edwards, to talk about how it felt to be defendants in the cases of Dexter vs. Just About Everybody.

Over cocktails in a bar in Gulfport, they found out he had courted them all with flowers and homemade dinners.

He had moved into their homes quickly, let them pay most of his living expenses he vehemently denies this, begged them to marry him and eventually hauled them all into court.

The lawsuits were all just business, Dexter insists. The women don't see it that way. They had let down their guards and trusted a man, only to have their hopes of love and trust and romance shattered.

All three women vowed never again to let a man get that close.

Months passed and they continued to meet to discuss their common enemy.

Each woman had a pet grievance.

- Edwards, Wife No. 3, was furious because Dexter had left her four months after their wedding day. Then, when they got back together years later, he dumped her again on Valentine's Day 2004 in the middle of the dessert course.

A few days after that second breakup, he got her to sign a notarized agreement pledging to give him $15,735 when she sold a house they had bought together. When she didn't give him the money, he brought her to court in August 2005. Edwards, who works as a nurse, won.

- Ex-girlfriend Leopard says she helped him get back on his feet after his used car dealership in Largo went under in 2000. After they broke up on bad terms nearly two years later, Dexter left a court summons on her doorstep.

He was suing her for $10,000 in home repair costs but got nowhere because she filed for bankruptcy.

He also wanted back a Bobcat that she had returned to the manufacturer after the breakup. He claimed she had stolen the machine from him and had her arrested, but charges were never filed. He put a lien on her house. To avoid the legal hassle, Leopard, who owns her own landscaping business, paid him a $700 settlement.

Dexter now says he and Leopard never dated seriously. They were just roommates. She was too butch for his taste, he said. She didn't wear lipstick.

These stories only strengthened Barclay's resolve to fight Dexter's lawsuit.

"We were not stupid women, we were trusting," Barclay said. "I had to put a stop to it, so maybe he couldn't do the same thing to other women."

In December, a judge dismissed Dexter's case against Barclay, ruling that because he wasn't a licensed contractor, Dexter had no right to payment for any work done in Barclay's home.

Dexter thinks Barclay somehow used her position as a deputy city clerk in Madeira Beach to sway the judge. Not true, she says.

"She is the nastiest woman I have ever met," Dexter says. "She works for the government. You know they look after their own."

- - -

Like Dexter, his exes just can't move on.

They joke about writing a movie based on him. If they get it on Lifetime, they laugh, he will never date again.

They have also snooped around and found out Dexter is not just a man who sues former lovers. He is a man who sues. Period.

Palm Beach County records show he sued three people between 1989 and 2001. Since moving to Pinellas County, he has been involved in 12 lawsuits. He was the plaintiff in seven of them, including the ones naming Leopard, Barclay and Edwards.

He usually represents himself. Most of the cases have been dismissed or settled.

While being interviewed for this article, he threatened at least six times to sue the newspaper if he found the story unflattering.

He swears he is not litigious, but rather is a man of principle. Services rendered demand payment due.

"I can't take the law into my own hands," he says. "If you owe me money how can I get money from you? I can't beat you up. I have to go to court."

- - -

On a recent Thursday morning, Barclay and Dexter met in a St. Petersburg courtroom for a hearing about whether he should pay the attorney fees she racked up while defending herself against his lawsuit.

In the hallway outside the courtroom, Barclay shot him a withering look, one hand placed firmly on her hip, before heading into the courtroom.

At his lawyer's recommendation, Dexter left the courtroom before the hearing began.

During the brief hearing, Judge Walter Fullerton listened to both sides and said he would rule later.

Bad breakups are common fodder in small-claims court, Fullerton said in his chambers after the hearing. Men and women fight over who gets to keep the engagement ring and how to divvy up their shared possessions.

But Dexter's case was unusual. He had little evidence to support his claim against Barclay, plus he seemed unbelievable, Fullerton said.

"He is either a con man," the judge said, "or a sad boyfriend who keeps getting thrown out."

The judgment was issued the next day.

Dexter has to give Barclay $8,350, the sum of her attorney's fees and court costs.

He says it's unfair. She worries he will never pay it.

Little has changed since the end of their relationship. Neither of them is happy.

Cristina Silva can be reached at (727) 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com. Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 17:20:21]