5 Week Marriage to Cost Man his Livelihood and Visa

by: pete fisher | published: 07 29, 2010

In the past few months I have been watching one of the strangest situations I have ever witnessed. It was bought to my attention and to be honest I normally would not take interest in marital disputes, but this case in Auburn, Indiana really caught my attention.

A British citizen, at the time a missionary in Korea had met an Indiana woman online and as things heated up, they decided to marry. Stephen Haworth left his job and missions to fly to the U.S. and wed this woman who he had spoken with and had been in daily email contact with as well. This 26 year old from Auburn, Indiana is the daughter of a local doctor, whose family also runs a bed and breakfast called the Inn at Windermere where guests commonly stay in the family rooms during their visits.

Stephen had a wedding planned thought the official wedding had already taken place at the Rexroth home in Auburn weeks earlier, to accommodate friends and relatives from abroad. He had arrived at the Paul Rexroth home in December of 2009 and shortly after asked him for his daughters hand in marriage. The were wed in the home with both parents attending and a local pastor of Marybeth Rexroth and her parents choosing on March 7, 2010.

The young couple decided to try and make a commitment to chastity until the big wedding blowout which was scheduled in June of 2010. All looked quite promising for Stephen and Marybeth until one evening in April 2010, 5 short weeks after being married. I received a call from Stephens mother in England, an author and Bible teacher and former Superintendent of schools where she resides. She had received a call from her son saying Dr. Rexroth had thrown her son from the home and demanded he leave that evening and had nowhere to go. Being a family friend and just hours away from Auburn, I was asked to help in anyway I could. So I called the Windermere and Dr. Rexroth answered the phone and I was shuffled to Stephen with no other comment. He was being tossed alright. Now it was approaching midnight and this young man in tears, was forced to place as much as he could into the Ford Taurus he purchased prior to the wedding with an appointment at the Immigration office in Michigan to attend the next morning at 8 AM. a 6.5 hour drive. He was assured by the Rexroths that his valuable book collection, 9 boxes of them would be mailed to him when he found a place to live. It took almost 2 months to be able to have his friends pick them up. They were seemingly being held hostage for the Annulment to be signed.

Also, Dr. Rexroth refused to discuss this with Stephen or his mother, or sisters, or anyone. They refused to take calls. I tried as well with no reply from email or phone requests. After all, I do like to see both sides of any story.

Obviously everyone was in shock who was apprised of this. What was the reason a man would throw his son in law to the street at midnight and tell him never to come back or contact his daughter ever again? 5 short weeks earlier they had the two married in their own home. What could this young man have done that was so horrible? This is where the story gets insane.

Marybeth and her new husband were caught in a moment of passion one day. The marriage had not been consummated, and still was not. It was a moment of heavy petting for the most part. Now, I am not sure what religious background the Rexroths are part of, but the day before Stephen had decided he wanted to take his wife to a local Calvary Chapel. her father seemed incensed at the idea. The following day Marybeth had gone to her father and told him about their little escapade that almost culminated into an act of consummation. The doctor was infuriated and called the two into a room where he promptly accused Stephan of 'Defiling his daughter". Bear in mind these two had been legally wed 5 weeks before. How can a man defile his own wife with heavy petting after marriage? A doctor with 7 or 8 children should know this is a natural path to follow for married people, no? And WHY would a 26 year old woman decide to run and tell her father about her almost sexual incident? Maybe times have changed, but I certainly never revealed those details to my parents during my marriage....ever. Nor do I ever wish to hear those things from my own daughter, I would be red faced with embarrassment and would not engage in such a conversation. Maybe I am a prude, sue me. But Freud would have a field day with this one I am sure. The background possibilities for speculation on this type of relationship between father and daughter are endless here. Also strange is the fact that this man rents his own and his childrens beds out to strangers who are possibly fornicating or cheating, and has no religious or moral convictions concerning this? Seems a tad personal to me actually.

So this man was driving to Michigan, had to sleep in his car in order to make his Immigration meeting in Michigan, then he drove straight through to Chicago where I met him and set him up in a civilized environment. He was distraught, broken hearted, confused, and now she was already sending him emails with veiled threats to revoke his Visa because she wanted an Annulment, not a divorce. Within 2 days she had retained a lawyer and filed for this Annulment after having told Stephen via email and phone that she would not harm his Visa status. She also sent him a legal brief that claimed she ONLY married him for his Visa status, which is highly illegal, to which Stephen responded vehemently that this was untrue.

The car he had purchased with his money she had never put his name on the title or registration. She was now making claims of some money she had in savings prior to him marrying her. All this was shown to me in emails, and in messages she left on his cell phone. I was a bit shocked myself reading through the hundreds of emails where she promised her undying love and devotion. I was even more shocked while reading through her fathers emails to Stephen prior to his flying here questioning him on his sexual proclivities and inquired about homosexuality and bestiality among other things. These emails can be produced if needed.

I have a daughter not far from Marybeths age. Would I ever require such detailed information from her or her husband or future husband? Unthinkable. But the emails are there. So, to protect his Visa status, Stephen had to procure yet another Immigration attorney. Keep in mind these lawyers charge around $4,000.00 a pop for their services. On top of being in transit across country and living in his car and hotels along the way, he has now accumulated approximately $15,000 dollars in debt from attorneys and various other expense such as a car and for Marybeths various spending. Since she was unemployed, of course, why not spend his cash? From Fredericks of Hollywood to shopping and dinners ( most without Stephen being allowed to attend while he sat locked away in a small town in her fathers house as she drove his car about town ), his savings were dwindling.

Stephen had no recourse to respond to her Annulment case with a divorce in order for him to be able to stay here until he finished schooling and returned to the Mission field. The Rexroths will have none of that! Dr. Rexroth and Marybeth have fought tooth and nail, hiring an attorney with family ties to a state senator that they are friends with as well as I assume, political campaign funding for the same. Stephen is quite worried now that he may be railroaded here and has requested that a judge from any political party other than the Kruse and Rexroth families try this case to avoid being crucified in a small town by political cronies. And rightly so. Stephen informs me that this Rexroth family is well connected and it was no surprise that to him that they chose this lawyer. Through Dr. Rexroth, he personally met Senator Kruse months ago. Especially interesting is that Senator Kruse touts that he is the advocate for laws that protect families and he is all for family values. Is he aware of this case? I cannot say. But I hope to make him aware that in his constituency, these people are doing everything they can to ruin family values.

Now, Marybeth and her attorney have put in a legal brief the demand that if he does not sign this annulment and pushed for a divorce ( is her family is terrified their little angel will bear the Scarlet Letter of divorce ) that they take half of Stephen's business and assets!

Now it is normally highly unlikely in any case where a woman after 5 weeks of unconsummated marriage would be awarded anything at all, but IF the political ties are there Indiana Law does allow for this. On top of this, Stephen had an Immigration meeting this month. he never knew of it, because after months of asking for his mail to be sent to him, the Rexroths did not release any of it until the day before the divorce mediation hearing on July 28, 2010. Meaning, Stephen had already missed his meeting and now has 2 weeks to leave the country. A British citizen with a car in his possession that he cannot take with him, as Marybeth has until the hearing yesterday refused to title in his name is sitting without running in Washington State. He is hoping she will get this remedied so he can sell the vehicle as he cannot take it with him, and she refuses to take the car and reimburse him for the thousands he spent on it.

Stephen has also made several responses to the Rexroths saying IF he signed an Annulment he would be deported the very day it went through. He asked that in order for him to be able to have the funds to leave, he asked they recompense him the money he was out due to this fiasco, and they responded by saying they would never give him more than $2,000. Funny, she makes claim she had $1,900 in her bank account before marrying him and requested it all back, meaning if she was somehow awarded that money ( though she spent it all on her own frivolous sprees as per Stephen ) that would leave them $100 dollars to pay Stephen to keep Marybeths "reputation" intact. The generosity astounds me. To ice the cake, she is claiming that divorce is unacceptable on religious grounds and MUST have this Annulment. Funny, she never mentions that walking away from a lifelong oath to God is a 'religious" conviction. Religion it seems is being used when it is convenient and not rising from actual conviction.

And one more tidbit. Marybeth was in Mozambique working with WWAM Ministry and had to walk away because a year earlier had begun a relationship with a local who she skipped out on at the last minute as well. Knowing she would have been asked to leave, it should be assumed she left on her own accord before they found she broke all the rules of her missions work and tossed her from the ministry. I am doing more research on this for any follow up articles to find out why some of these people are not subject to mental and psychological testing before sending them abroad.

Now, knowing they had been successful in getting Stephen deported, they moved the next mediation hearing ( though this one was thought by Stephen to have reached an agreement or moved onto divorce ) that will take place while he is deported. And they are pushing to have a judge make the decision to push the Annulment though it meets none of the legal criteria for Annulment. Stephen was not married, he was who he said he was, lived where he said he lived, has references worldwide from prestigious individuals globally, is not a felon, has no undisclosed diseases. Yet the Rexroths and their attorney are confident this will go through the courts as detailed in correspondence, and in the mind of all us outsiders can only be accomplished if the political ties are there to sidestep the law. Speculation on our part of course, but looking at the facts it is easy to reach that conclusion to the bystander watching this fiasco.

So now young Haworth is being deported and facing more legal costs. He is also being threatened that she will take half of his business which he set up 2 years prior to being married. This entire thing has cost him close to $20,000 dollars to date and who knows how much more if these lawyers continue to push for more mediation, which costs him hundreds every hour they meet. All due to a girl who decided she didn't want to be married because they BOTH got caught up in a heavy petting session weeks before the wedding party? Of course, we all know it takes 2 to Tango, but it seems obvious from the communication and legal briefs I have witnessed that she and her family do not want the Scarlet Letter to have to be explained for any future marriage possibilities. How does one explain they are divorced and still a virgin? Again, just my thoughts.

But to demand half this mans assets, no consummation, no kids, no real shared property...will this actually happen? If so, all the judges and state Senators and Representatives, as well as Congressmen from Indiana should be placed on notice as to the travesty taking place here. And with the most generous offer of $2,000 by a prominent local doctor in an attempt to make this "go away" it makes me wonder as well why his daughters reputation is not worth the price of a nice television set. maybe he knows something he is not revealing, maybe the hunches of all those standing to the side seem to feel and have verbalized.

Maybe aside from Mozambique and Auburn this is not the first time similar events have occurred. I do not know, but it certainly makes me wonder. And it certainly seems to be the exact opposite of Senator Kruse and his family values push. I can only hope he can intervene and show the people of Indiana that his family values will rise higher than this small town railroad job that promises to strip a man of what he has worked for due to a 5 week marriage he never even got to glean the benefits of. What a travesty, what a waste of legal proceedings and money this is. Will Haworths lawyer be able to push through this and win or will the Rexroth family be bale to gloat in their planned demise of the poor slob who was naive and innocent enough to believe in true love and lifelong commitment?

Only the upcoming court case will show us the true value of justice or the sad reality of politically connected powers to move justice aside for the sake of future campaign funding.

Stephen Haworth can be reached at stevyhaworth@hotmail.com for interviews and more information on this case.

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