Martin Chitwood Exonerated of All Domestic Abuse Allegations

SAN DIEGO - Oct. 22, 2017 - PRLog -- On August 31, 2017, a California jury determined that high-profile Atlanta Attorney Martin Chitwood had not committed domestic violence as alleged against him by his former wife Carol Swanson Chitwood. The civil trial, which lasted five weeks, took place in San Diego County Superior Court before a 12-person jury composed of seven men and five women. The form on which the jury rendered its verdict had 56 separate boxes the jury could check to find Mr. Chitwood liable for one or more allegations, and the jury did not check a single box.

Carol Chitwood, who has had decades of treatment for mental health disorders, was represented by Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom of the Bloom Firm. Bloom is famous for representing women who make unproven and sensational claims against public figures, including celebrities like songwriter and performer Usher, and promoting those claims to the media. Bloom, who prefers California as the venue for domestic violence actions, was able to sue Mr. Chitwood in San Diego because he had a vacation home there. In an attempt to strengthen her case, Bloom also implored both the San Diego City Attorney and San Diego District Attorney to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Chitwood, but in decisions that foreshadowed the jury verdict in the civil case, both declined.

Bloom's business model is to promote her cases to the media to force a settlement before a trial can be reached. The success of her business model is independent of the veracity of the claims. Bloom knows it can take two or three years or longer for a case to go to trial and that someone whose career depends on his reputation may have no choice but to settle quickly, regardless of whether the claims are true, to avoid continuous adverse publicity. Bloom also assists her clients in pursuing criminal charges that support her civil cases. Consistent with her business model, Bloom sought the services of several media resources to publicize Carol Chitwood's allegations against Martin Chitwood. Though responsible media outlets actively seek to avoid becoming accomplices in litigation, Bloom found one publication that was eager to accommodate her. In a front-page bombshell story, the self-described Atlanta tabloid The Daily Report assisted Bloom by publishing an article sympathizing with Carol Chitwood's claims and sensationalized the story with a lurid, garish photograph of an injury above Carol Chitwood's eye, suggesting it was the product of abuse at Martin Chitwood's hands. Disturbingly, The Daily Report ran the provocative photograph even though its reporter, Robin McDonald, and her editors knew before publication that Carol Chitwood had testified her injury had been caused by a fall, and the reporter also had been shown clear evidence that Martin was not even with Carol when she fell. Discovery in the litigation would later show that The Daily Report was looking for a story to follow up on a series of articles it had published about domestic violence claims against Eleventh Circuit Judge Mark Fuller, which had generated unusual reader interest. Assisting Bloom further, The Daily Report ran another article the very next day urging law enforcement and judicial authorities to pursue charges against Mr. Chitwood, even though none of the accusations of abuse was supported by the evidence. The first article, which was a cringe-worthy character assassination piece based on Carol Chitwood's false accusations, concluded with a karmic quote from Bloom herself:  "…ultimately, the jury is going to see through all of this." Ironically, it appears that quote was the only thing in the articles that either Bloom or The Daily Report got completely right. To date, The Daily Report has failed to update its readers to inform them of the recent verdict exonerating Martin Chitwood of each and every allegation made against him.

Prior to the San Diego litigation, Martin Chitwood had filed for divorce in Fulton County, Georgia, asking the court to enforce the prenuptial agreement the parties had signed four months before their 2009 marriage. Carol Chitwood, then represented by her first Atlanta attorney, cited "irreconcilable differences" in her response to the divorce papers. Three months later, however, she retained Bloom, and at Bloom's urging, Carol replaced her first Atlanta attorney with Jeffrey Bogart, with whom Bloom shared a mentality. Advised by Bloom and Bogart, Carol chose to challenge the prenuptial agreement, and a full five months after Martin Chitwood filed for divorce, Carol alleged for the first time that Martin had committed extreme acts of domestic violence that she could not have foreseen at the time of the marriage. Thereafter, Bloom and Bogart worked with The Daily Report to publicly brand Martin as a perpetrator of domestic violence, though the allegations of abuse were fictitious.

When the Georgia court rejected Carol Chitwood's challenge and enforced the prenuptial agreement, Bloom responded by filing the San Diego litigation. Thereafter, Carol's claims continued to grow in number, severity, and specificity all the way up to, and even during, the trial. Ultimately, however, as forecast by Bloom herself, the jury saw through all of this and found that not a single claim that she alleged on Carol Chitwood's behalf was true.