article link McGrady paternity case must be open Judge says lawyers didn't meet standard for closing the NBA star's proceeding By TODD RUGER todd.ruger@heraldtribune.com SARASOTA COUNTY -- The documents and court proceedings in basketball star Tracy McGrady's paternity case will be reopened to the public, a circuit judge ruled. Attorneys for both McGrady and Pearl Vega argued last month that the trial should be held in secret and the court case sealed to protect the interests of their daughter. But Circuit Judge Donna Berlin ruled that the attorneys failed to establish a legal reason why the case should not be public, according to documents released Thursday. Berlin had temporarily sealed the case and stopped the trial until her ruling. The future of the case was not immediately clear Thursday. McGrady, 28, an all-star guard for the Houston Rockets, is battling with Vega, 35, over how much he should pay in child support. McGrady and Vega, who lives in Bradenton, were not married. In court records, she says McGrady should pay in line with his NBA lifestyle and $21.6 million annual income. McGrady's attorneys say in court records that the claim is more about the mother's "desire for a high lifestyle rather than any reasonable needs of a minor child." Mark Sessums, McGrady's attorney, first made the request to close the courtroom after a Herald-Tribune reporter entered the courtroom to watch testimony in the trial. Sessums said the issues include possible trade secrets buried in McGrady's endorsement contracts. The case contains seven volumes and is about 12 inches thick. Attorneys for the newspaper argued against closing the files to the public, saying the desire to litigate the case in private did not meet the heavy legal burden necessary to shut out the public.
Iguess this couldn't just go quietly. Looks like T-Mac is competing with Kobe for the attention of non-bball legal matters.
Thats the problem when you're celeb... CHICKS DIG MONEY... luckily tmac is married and I think waiting for 3rd child to be born...
His wife should know that cause it lokks like he has known about that for a long time. Now the even is about money. She just wants to be rich like T-Mac is, fuc*in' money
Cause it was a secret for the media. The child has been already born so Tracy and his wife have to know about that, it's easy. First I thought that the child is only gonna be born and it's gonna be a surprise for McGrady and his family. But the case is about money...
Oh man I hate for this to happen to Tmac. The judge is clearly a prick... not enough sufficient evidence for the trial to be private? Please, she knows why. Also Tmac's mistress is a prick. Everybody knows where the money she's gonna be getting is going, and it's not to the baby. Luckily I don't think anybody else but the Rockets fans really care about this. I remember this case leaked out a couple months ago and it didn't really get any coverage on the national level media IIRC.
My grandmother's name was Pearl. Trials are generally supposed to be public to enforce the integrity of the judicial system. I'm glad there is a heavy requirement to make a trial private. McGrady and Pearl didn't meet the requirement. That doesn't make the judge a prick. He's following the law.
me too. t-mac musta met her at some party, or club, then had a one night stand afterwards. but who cares???
Good decision by the judge. I want to hear all the details of this case. Freedom of the press wins out again.
Not that I care about his personal life outside of basketball, but anyone think this is the 'real' reason why he started acting out last season about something that was 'really big' and apparently the toughest thing he's had to go through in his entire life? When details finally started to leak out about his mother-in-law passing away, I went "Huh?!!"...at the time it didn't make sense that he would be so distraught over his mother-in-law passing away, and it still doesn't make any sense that that would be the real reason as to why he was in such a funk until the ASG. Now this -- something that had the potential to destroy his marriage and turn his life upside down -- would make a lot more sense to me. Ironically enough, that very controversial thread about rumors regarding McGrady's troubles off-court may not have been that far off, with one exception: his wife isn't the one that cheated on him and is pregnant by another man, instead he's the one who impregnated another woman outside of his relationship with his long time partner. May be Clutch can now 'unlock' that thread and rub it in a little bit Time for a confessional, T-Mac... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVh_QckEsng"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVh_QckEsng" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
