You may recall a piece we covered in early October entitled, "Man Poses As Divorce Lawyer." At the time, Arizona resident Gary Karpin was facing 24 counts of theft and one count of fraud as a result of posing as a divorce lawyer and deceiving at least two dozen clients. (Check out how he was caught.)

Well, the verdict's in, and Karpin has been found guilty of all charges and has been sentenced to 15 years of jail time, reports zoniereport.com.

According to the article, the 57-year-old was ashamed of his behavior and said he would accept any punishment the court handed down (not like he has choice...).

What's more troubling than the $300,000 he essentially stole from his clients is the financial condition he left them in. One woman, who paid Karpin $90,000, was forced to declare bankruptcy and is unable to purchase plane tickets to visit her ailing parents.

There was no talk of restitution, but an additional hearing will address the matter, and a civil case has been filed against Karpin, as well.

Photo: The Arizona Republic

Ever since Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil tied the knot in May 2007, rumors have swirled that their marriage was over. The New York Post's Page Six, however, reports that two have split-this time for real. The paper says the 25-year-old admitted to a British tabloid that she has split from her 26-year-old husband.

She's a drug-challenged, Grammy-award-winning artist; he's currently serving time for assault and bribery charges. Both have their issues, sure. But is one of them codependence?

Winehouse may say it's over — she says that Fielder-Civil left her for a German model — but who's knows what she'll say tomorrow. One thing's for sure: Their reported shared sex kink (see the link to the article, above) is enough to keep our finger on the Winehouse-Civil pulse...

Photo: popbuzzUK.com

When are children acting in their parents’ best interests? And when are children acting in their own best interests? Usually these questions come up in billion-dollar cases, like the one with Anna Nichole Smith and her husband, J. Howard Johnson, 63 years her senior.

Who’s to say that Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy playmate, did not make the last years of Johnson’s life in Texas a lot happier, even if they never lived together?

Ok, let’s leave that extremely messy question behind.

Next question: if a penny-pinching widower named Claude Thomas, age 87, secretly marries Susana Martinez Ramirez, 45, in 2001, and if she spends a lot of his money on things like cars for her ex-husband and clothes and such, who is to say that Claude Thomas is not happy to be throwing some money around, including in her direction.

Why of course it’s his children. They say that their father amassed $1.5 million by being frugal. And that his second wife has spent down that estate to a mere $165,000 since their marriage in 2001. And so they petitioned the court to force their father to divorce his wife.

Although Claude Thomas had exhibited some early signs of dementia, in court he said that he was happy with his wife, and her spending habits. He had met her when she was pushing a tea cart in a local restaurant. After that she came to help clean his house. And even though she doesn’t speak much English, and he doesn’t speak much Spanish, they found comfort in each other after Thomas’s wife died.

Somehow, two years later, in 2001, Thomas and Ramirez got married. His children claim that there was no sign of the marriage. And that she didn’t live with him.

A British reverend has been banned from the ministry for seven years following an affair with a female parishioner, reports The Telegraph. Rev. Andrew Gair served as marriage therapist to a husband and wife, known only as Mr. and Mrs. X, in 2004.

Gair counseled the couple individually. He saw Mr. X on parish grounds, while he took "long walks in the countryside" with Mrs. X. (How romantic!) According to both Gair and Mrs. X, they fell in love and spoke of starting a new life together.

His guilt getting the best of him, Gair confessed the relationship to Mr. X, claiming that "these things happen." Gair and Mrs. X soon went their separate ways after realizing that they weren't meant to be together — although Mr. and Mrs. X are divorcing after all.

According to the article: Gair's scandal "emerged just days after the Rev. Teresa Davies, a motorbike-riding female vicar who held church services while drunk and went on wife-swapping holidays with her husband, was banned for 12 years."

Yikes. Those Church of England revs really know how to have a good time, don't they?

The man allegedly responsible for his wife's disappearance has sought counsel from one of the country's top paternal rights divorce lawyers, states TMCnet.com.

Twenty-four-year-old Stacy Peterson was last seen just over a year ago driving away from her suburban Illinois home. Since that time, investigators have concluded Drew Peterson is in fact suspect, despite finding a lack of evidence — the Peterson home has been searched twice; investigators have impounded their cars for further investigation and sent divers into a nearby retention pond in an effort to track down clues on the case. The area has been combed by officials and volunteers alike.

Drew Peterson, who retired from the local police force shortly after Stacy's disappearance, has also been linked to the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio's body was exhumed to reconsider the current cause of death, which was labeled accidental, shortly after Stacy's investigation began.

Peterson has take an angry stance over Stacy's disappearance, claiming his wife most certainly left him for another man. When asked if he would take her back, should she return, he said it would "take a lot of talking" to persuade him.

Which is why it's not so strange that the 54-year-old met with attorney Jeffrey Leving last week to seek divorce information on the grounds of desertion. Peterson initially denied meeting with Leving (Leving represented Elian Gonzales's father and won custody of the Cuban child from his U.S. foster family on behalf of his client), but finally divulged that a divorce would allow him to move his children to a new location — once the marital assets had been divided.

Photo: ABC News

Pakistani women may have an entirely new outlook on divorce, if family law legislation is passed, reports New Delhi new web site ndtv.com. The Council of Islamic Ideology has proposed that a woman who files for separation is automatically granted a divorce if her husband does not respond within 90 days.

Currently, a man can divorce his spouse verbally (by simply stating "divorce") and privately, says Reuters. Women, however, must appear before family court — but first must surrender any right to mehr, or money her husband pledged to her when the two married.

The proposal is meeting stiff opposition, as you can imagine, from religious sectors, which claim the change challenges Islamic law.

Former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his wife of 32 years have divorced, reports AFP. It's the unusual circumstances surrounding the split, however, that have government officials wondering if the couple divorced for financial or legal reasons, as opposed to personal ones.

A little background: Shinawatra was ousted from his position in a 2006 coup. Since then he has been charged with corruption charges; his wife, Pojaman, with tax evasion charges. The two fled Thailand for the UK in August, but their British visas have recently been cancelled. Up against a wall, it is believed that the two divorced so that Pojaman could return to their homeland claiming that she has no connections to politics (or to her husband's corruption charges) and reapply for a British visa.

Shinawatra announced the divorce at a military police dinner in Hong Kong. And a source close to the former PM said it was simply a "divorce on paper," indicating that it was for the public's benefit only. An anonymous source told AFP that the two are closer than ever.

Later reports indicate that the divorce will not aid Pojaman financially or legally, however.

If stress puts any relationship closer to the edge of a divorce, it would be this one. Had Shinawatra not made such a public spectacle of the divorce, I'd suspect the two really were on the road to splitsville. But with all the pomp and circumstance, I'd have to say this is a strategic move to lessen the pressure. So often couples must stay together for legal or financial reasons; but to have to split because of them? Not your run-of-the-mill divorce.

This was something that former View host Debbie Matenopoulos didn’t want to see. On Internet sites, there were rumors that her husband was cheating. Now to her shock and dismay, her husband, the music executive Jay Faires, has surprised her by filing divorce papers in California.

"I am deeply saddened by the dissolution of my seven-year relationship with my husband, a man I truly believed I would be with forever," Matenopoulos said in a statement to E! News, where she now works. “Although my public persona may seem unconventional at times, I do not take marriage and family lightly, and I am quite traditional.”

Faires filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court citing the usual — irreconcilable differences. He also said that, since the couple does not have any children and she is gainfully employed, he should not have to provide any spousal support.

It appears, he wasn’t supporting the relationship for some time. The couple, who married in July of 2003, did separate in March of this year. But like many women, Matenopoulos thought they were going through a rough patch and that maybe a separation would give them time to appreciate what they had.

But perhaps she should have read How To Tell If Your Man Is Cheating. Although she may have known that less than 5 percent of couples who separate ever get back together, hope is something all of us have when it comes to reviving troubled relationships.

Before it is truly over, women try really hard and are willing to forgive many sins in an effort to keep their marriages afloat. However, the boat has now left the dock and Matenopoulos will sail on solo, seeking a safe harbor with someone who will appreciate her, which is just what she deserves.

A UK couple has split due to unreasonable behavior. The "behavior" in question? Having sex and extramarital affairs via online virtual-world game Second Life, reports Sky News.

Twenty-eight-year-old Amy Taylor met David Pollard in an Internet chat room a few years back. After six months exchanging emails, photos, and phone calls, she moved in with him. Three months later, she caught Pollard having sex with an escort — in Second Life.

Taylor was outraged, but Pollard promised to straighten up. The two married, and even had a ceremony in Second Life. (Wow.) Unfortunately, Pollard returned to his wayward ways-or at least his online character did.

Taylor once again found Pollard's character in a compromising position. This time, snuggled on a sofa with an American woman. (Um, at least he didn't hire an escort this time? No. It's no better!)

That's when Pollard revealed he had feelings for the other woman. After two weeks of corresponding with the American, Pollard said things were over with Taylor. And get this: Pollard and his new lady-friend are engaged! (Reminder: They've never met in real life.)

But don't worry, Taylor landed on her feet. After filing for divorce (apparently the second Second Life divorce case in one week), she's involved with a man she met while playing online game World of Warcraft.

Does your spouse chew too loudly? Maybe he can't beat his smoking habit. Or perhaps he's garnered a bit too much attention from the ladies? According to The Times of India, these minor annoyances have morphed into major grounds for divorce. If you follow our Relevant News coverage, you may have noticed a trend. Some of the most unusual divorce stories come from one country: India.

Taking a cue from Western culture (unfortunately, that would be us), Indian couples have increasingly rushed to the courthouse should a facet of the beloved's bother them. Of course, these are just a handful of cases of the already low 1.1% divorce rate for the country.

Couples have supplied a plethora of off-the-wall reasons to split. We recently wrote about the man who filed because his wife's acne was "traumatic" and he could not share a home with her. A few weeks back, a homemaker gambled in the temperamental stock market and her husband wasn't willing to shoulder the financial loss with her. Just a few months ago, a frustrated husband drew up divorce paperwork should his wife light up one more cigarette.