BATESVILLE, Arkansas – Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer ordered Hunter Biden to appear on July 10 and show why she shouldn’t put him in jail and give his daughter his last name.
Meyer entered the order on June 5 in response to a contempt motion that mother Lunden Roberts filed on May 18.
Roberts claimed Biden violated a court order by failing to answer interrogatories.
She proposed “incarceration for civil contempt until such time as the defendant fully answers discovery for a period of up to six months.”
She proposed to strike a motion that Biden filed to reduce his child support, and she proposed to strike his response to a motion she filed to change the child’s last name to Biden.
Roberts also proposed incarceration for up to six months for criminal contempt.
Her counsel Clinton Lancaster of Benton, Ark., wrote that he didn’t believe Biden would ever fully answer discovery.
He sought a $20,000 fee for “goose chases” and a constant need for court intervention.
Meyer’s order stated she would hear only evidence of defects in Biden’s answers that Lancaster listed in the motion.
She notified Biden that his ability to pay child support is or might become a critical issue in the contempt proceeding.
She notified him that he’d have an opportunity to respond to statements and questions about his financial status.
She also notified him that he was subject to an express finding that he has the ability to pay.
Roberts sued Biden in 2019, seeking to establish paternity.
Biden denied it, but genetic testing proved it.
He signed an affidavit attesting he was unemployed and had no monthly income
“I currently have significant debts in part as a result of obligations arising from my divorce which was final in April 2017 that are being calculated by accountants,” he wrote.
Meyer set a final hearing in May 2020.
As it approached, she signed an order stating swift adjudication would serve the child’s best interest and she gave Biden considerable leniency regarding continuances.
She stated she began to see a pattern of delay.
Two days later, Roberts and Biden reported a final agreement in a confidential amount.
Meyer closed the case, but Biden reopened it last year, claiming a change in circumstances required reduction of support.
Lancaster responded that Biden hadn’t paid support for a year.
He moved to change the child’s name last December, claiming the Biden name is synonymous with being “well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful.”
He called Hunter Biden a successful businessman.
Biden’s counsel Brent Langdon of Texarkana, Texas, responded that Roberts must prove a name change is in the child’s best interest.
“The notoriety would no doubt rob this child of peaceful existence,” he wrote.
Lancaster moved to discover Biden’s legal bills in April, claiming they would indicate his income and ability to pay.
Biden resisted, Lancaster sought intervention, and Meyer set a hearing.
A day before the hearing, Biden produced his bills.
Roberts presented the bills to her expert, and Illinois native, Garrett Zeigler so he could prepare for a deposition. Zeigler is from Effingham County and has acquired a national audience with research and opinions about the Biden family.
Hunter Biden moved to keep Zeigler out of the Arkansas case, but counsel for Roberts successfully argued that defendants don’t get to choose experts for plaintiffs.
Meyer has set bench trial for July 24 and 25.