Hollywood director Alexander Payne’s divorce from his estranged wife is being sealed, and this has some court spectators and Payne’s counsel scratching their heads.
At the request of Payne’s counsel, Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka sealed the divorce case on July 13 without giving a reason or, presumably, without consulting with the lawyer for Payne’s wife, Maria K. Payne. The case was sealed by Otepka on the day it was filed, and there is no mention of a hearing over the move to seal.
September marked the judge’s retirement.
It is assumed that civil and criminal matters are handled in public in Nebraskan courts as well as others across the nation. Alexander Payne’s divorce case was sealed for the following reason: the complaint “contains sensitive information which is personal to the parties and which ought to be shielded from public light,” according to Payne’s counsel.
What “sensitive information” was contained in the complaint, a copy of which The World-Herald was able to get, was not made clear. It contained the child’s name and the addresses of the couple’s four houses, but no financial information or confidential personal information like Social Security numbers. There are three homes: one in downtown Omaha, one in California, and two overseas. Every divorce petition that is submitted must include these information.
The basic details of the divorce petition are likewise standard; it requests an equitable division of the couple’s assets and parenting time. However, there is an additional international component to the case: according to court documents, Payne’s estranged wife and their 4-year-old daughter are residing in two of the Paynes’ Greek residences.
Maria K. Payne filed for divorce in California, less than a month after Payne did so in Nebraska. September 2015 saw the couple get hitched.
While traveling through a region of Greece where his family formerly resided, Alexander Payne encountered Maria Payne. Maria Payne, a Greek native and philologist who specializes in language in literature, is 27 years younger than Alexander Payne, who is 60 years old.
The divorce case in California is not sealed, in contrast to Nebraska. Public records also exist on the couple’s ongoing Greek child custody dispute. It seems that the entire court docket is sealed in Nebraska alone.
Payne, a native of Omaha and a multiple award-winning filmmaker of Hollywood productions, such as “Citizen Ruth,” “Election,” “About Schmidt,” “Sideways,” and “Nebraska,” is not the only one attempting to get cases sealed.
