On the way in to work this morning, I heard a radio snippet about a local Houston billionaire who just adopted his 42 year old girlfriend. Yeah. According to the Houston Chronicle, John Goodman (not the dude from ‘Roseanne’) adopted Heather Laruso
Hutchins last October.
You see, Goodman is facing vehicular homicide charges for hitting a young man’s car in Florida, knocking it into a ditch where he drowned. By making Hutchins his legal daughter, she is able to control a third of the assets he set up for his two real children. So long story short, he effectively owns this money through her, but the funds can’t be included as assets during the trial.
It’s even more complicated than that because Goodman is facing multiple charges. You can read more here.
But, this 48 year old man just adopted his 42 year old girlfriend to hold on to his assets. I find this very disturbing for multiple reasons.
First, why is it ok for people to sue for inordinate amounts of money? So much so that people are now adopting their girlfriends to hold on to what they have? Should there be limits to how much people can sue for in certain cases? I understand he killed someone, most likely due to drunken driving, but is the state of Florida and the deceased’s parents owed billions upon billions for this? I would think 30+ years in prison (being afraid to drop the soap for the entire sentence) plus some significant financial penalties would suffice, but cleaning him out doesn’t make sense to me. How is this justice?
And no, I’m not a cold-hearted bitch. The loss of this person’s life is horrible, inexcusable and the pain his family must feel is something I cannot comprehend. I just feel that the justice system is flawed. And yeah, Googman is probably a pompous rich asshole who devotes more time to polo than any charity.
Second, the man adopted his GIRLFRIEND. Incest much? Could be. But all that aside, he could have adopted a needy child if he was so inclined to adopt. But then, said child couldn’t be a veritable Swiss bank account like Hutchins, right? Just think of all of the children in the world that desperately want to be adopted. However, someone who drinks (supposedly) and drives and kills another person is defintely not the ideal candidate. I know, it’s a very circuitous thought process here. I’m just so confused.
There are so many things wrong with this story. While the entire thing just bothers me to no end, what do you think about this mess?
Oh my gosh!!!! This happened in my local area. I hadn’t read this. Unbelievable ~ What a scumbag. I do think the victim’s parents should clean him out. While I feel really bad for his children because they’re losing a father to jail, if mine was just taken away from me, I’d be irate if I knew that the killer’s kids grew up in the lap of luxury while mine was dead. I’m probably a cold hearted bitch for wanting them to ‘suffer’ too… My recollection of the story is that he was high on drugs, hit the victim while driving his Bently (not that it matters), knocked him into a canal while he was still alive, left the scene, didn’t call 911 etc. And now that I think of it, is incest illegal if both people are over 18? I just can’t even believe people.
I don’t understand how a person can adopt a 40-year-old anybody. Aren’t you an adult at 40? I can’t believe that’s legal!