Firefighter's widow barred from spending death benefits, has no access to $600,000 estate
Print- •
-
Share
- Share this item
-
Grab the link
Copy and paste the link:
- Blog about it
- Close
- •
-
Post a Comment
- •
Favorite- •
-
Report error
-
Thank you for your submission.Error report or correction
- Close
-
- •
Nikki Araguz, third from left, held a news conference after the hearing in the Wharton County courthouse on Friday. She thanked friends and supporters.
A tearful Nikki Araguz left a Wharton County courtroom last week after a judge barred her from spending her husband's death benefits.
State District Judge Randy Clapp ordered that the $60,000 check the transgender widow of a Thomas Araguz III received be transferred to a trust account.
Clapp also ordered that a gun the firefighter received for graduation and the badge his widow received at the funeral service be turned over to the attorney of Simona Rodriguez Longoria, the firefighter's mother.
The judge also froze all other assets in the firefighter's $600,000 estate, which is made up mostly of death benefits and life insurance payments.
Clapp ruled that half of the benefits and the estate will go to the firefighter's two sons, ages 9 and 7, from a previous marriage.
"We got everything that we asked for," said Chad Ellis, Longoria's attorney.
Despite the judge's ruling, Darrell M. Steldley, the widow's attorney, said they, too, thought the ruling was fair.
Araguz wanted to make one thing clear.
"I promised him that I would make sure that our children, because I do consider them our children, that I would help take care of them whenever they needed anything," she said, fighting back tears. "I will continue to maintain my husband's honor."
Araguz has not been able to see the children since the memorial.
When Araguz took the stand, Ellis asked how she has been supporting herself since her husband's death.
Of the $60,000 pension check Araguz received from the Texas Emergency Services Retirement System, she already used about $1,200 to pay utility bills she and her husband shared.
"I have to live, I have to eat," she said.
For the past three years, she has received about $1,000 a month from Social Security disability insurance.
The court did not disclose why Araguz was on Social Security.
She also received $1,700 from the State Fire Marshal's Association. She said she has already spent this money.
The deceased firefighter's mother maintains the benefits do not belong to the widow.
Any life insurance her son's wife receives does not belong to the widow, she said, as she took the stand.
"If she has no real marriage, she should return the benefits," his mother said.
Though Friday's hearing was to determine the distribution of assets, it was also the initial step to determine whether the marriage was legal or will be nulled.
A birth certificate and an affidavit of her name change were submitted as evidence for the future trial.
Clapp did not set a date for the next hearing.