SPOKANE, Wash. -- A judge has refused to grant a divorce to a pregnant woman trying to leave her husband two years after he was jailed for beating her, ruling instead that she must wait until the child is born. Shawnna Hughes' husband was convicted of abuse in 2002. She filed for divorce last April. She later became pregnant by another man and is due in March.
Her husband, Carlos, never contested the divorce, and the court approved it in October. But the divorce papers failed to note that Hughes was pregnant, and when the judge found out, he rescinded the divorce.
"There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitimized," Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine said.