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argues that “she was expressly prohibited from doing so by her
former husband.” However, petitioner did not establish that this
was the case. She testified at trial:
He [Mr. Elesh] was very controlling. He was very--Bill is
very soft-spoken, but he’s very demanding, as far as
threatening is concerned. He would threaten me a lot with
things that he would shut off, or turn off, or not do. And
I was always very worried what was coming next.
* * * * * * *
He was very paranoid. He was very secretive. He was very
cheap, as far as not wanting to spend a dime on this or
that. Like I said, if I wanted to buy mulch for underneath
the bushes, I had to purchase it. And he would threaten me
and say, if I see a bag of mulch in this house, he said,
that phone’s getting shut off. Or you’re not going to pay
for any of that food. So if I went to the store to buy a
bag of mulch for under the bushes, I had to hide it in my
trunk until after he was in bed, then put it under the bush
during the day.
Concerning the filing of the tax returns, petitioner testified:
Year after year, Mr. Elesh would walk in, around the
same time, and say, sign this. And he would put it in front
of me, he had a file folder. And he would go like this.
And he’d say, hurry up, hurry up. Do it now, do it now.
Sign it. I have to go; I have to go. And he would always
do it when he was on his way to work in the morning.
And I would say, well, why don’t you leave it here
overnight? Why didn’t you leave it here last night when you
came home so I can read what this says? And he would never
let me look at it or read it. He would--just, do it now,
hurry, hurry, hurry, I have to go. Sign it.
* * * * * * *
He told me that [if I refused to sign] he would turn
off the electricity, or turn off the phone, or lots of other
things if I didn’t do it and do it now.
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