RFK Jr. recorded secretly second wife during divorce and recognized being “polygam” – Mother Jones

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Talking with Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) in Washington earlier this month.J. Scott AppleWhite/AP

In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. underwent a contentious divorce with her second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. It was ugly. Richardson had Found a diary RFK Jr. Held the chronic several objectionable affairs he had engaged in – possibly numbering in those dozens – and she was furious and plagued by his adultery. She drank and raised Two Duiier. The two fought for years over the detention of their four children. The battle ended on May 16, 2012 with its suicide by hanging at home in their home in Bedford, New York.

In the course of law by doing so.

Mother Jones has achieved a cache of these audio recordings that include more than 60 conversations that took place in 2011 and early 2012. In many of the footage, Richardson was confused at the end of his marriage to Kennedy. Sometimes she burstingly jumping out against him, cursed and shouting; Occasionally, she asked for reconciliation. When she knew he was recording, Kennedy was definitely more careful than she was. He often pressed her to end the divorce and accused her behavior of their collapse and his affairs. In none of the recordings, Kennedy Richardson informed that she was admitted or asked for her consent to be admitted.

In an angry conversation on June 4, 2011, Kennedy, who had married Richardson in 1994 after her first divorce to her, said: “I want to be in a monogamous relationship. I will not be in a polygamous relationship. I think it’s wrong. “Richardson then asked,” But why have you done it for 10 years? ” Kennedy replied, “I did it because I was abused at home.” (Mother Jones Does not publish the footage because they contain claims that we have not confirmed and information about third parties raising concerns about privacy.)

Kennedy did not respond to more requests for commentary on the recordings.

Most of the recordings were apparently made, while both Kennedy and Richardson were in the New York State, which is a one -party consent state when it comes to registering a conversation. This means that, according to the New York State Law, there is only one person in the conversation who must be aware of the recording in order for it to be a legal act.

But in one case, Kennedy recorded a telephone conversation with Richardson when he was apparently in California, which is a two-party consent state. According to California lawA person needs the agreement from all parties in a conversation to register a private call. Violation of this law can be punished with a fine of up to $ 2,500 and a prison sentence of up to one year.

This call took place on June 14, 2011. The week, Kennedy was in Los Angeles to the premiere on The last mountainA documentary about Mountaintop removal of mining, which is partly based on a 2005 book by Kennedy. During the eight-minute call, the two claimed when Kennedy pleaded with her to sign a custody, and Richardson sent her complaints over him and asked him to avoid having their 16-year-old son, Conor, who was in public with Actor Cheryl Hines, Kennedy’s girlfriend, whom he later married. On the audio file for this call, Kennedy did not inform Richardson that the conversation was registered.

The violation of two-party consent in California is a Criminal offenseBut that can also be reason for a civil trial. Generally, Statute for restrictions In California for a criminal wrongdoing is a year one year. In cases where one of the participants in a recorded conversation is in a one-party consent state and another in California, As per the Conn Law, A California-based law firm that specializes in privacy rights, “California’s courts typically favors the consent of the two-party, which means that when a party is in California, the stricter rule applies.”

Kennedy’s recordings of his conversations with Richardson were covered by a request for discovery in the divorce case, according to a person familiar with the trial, but none of this material was transferred to Richardson’s lawyers.

At one point during the divorce, Richardson suspected Kennedy made secret footage.

As part of the trial, Kennedy filed a sealed, 60-page statement Filled with accusations of mismatch from Richardson. It accused Richardson of violent outbursts, excessive drinking, physically abused him and threatened suicide in front of their children. In March 2012, months after this statement was submitted, with the help of her sisters Martha and Nan Richardson a point-by-point draft of return to Kennedy’s statement.

This document was obtained by Mother JonesAnd its authenticity was confirmed by a Richardson family member. In this draft, Richardson declared that Kennedy “has been stealthily tape -recording of phone calls in my home.” She also claimed that Kennedy “has left her statements, prints of overall recorded phone calls and other documents that have been sprinkled for anyone to see.”

The draft accused Kennedy of leading a “Svidd Earth” campaign against Richardson, and it presented a series of accusations against Kennedy, including the claims that he was a miserable parent, that he mislead her about the extent of his infidelity that he physically was abuse with her and that he abused prescription drugs. She referred to him as a “sexual deviant” and a sex addict, and the document noted that she had text messages and photographs from Kennedy’s phone related to his affairs.

The draft document described many episodes in their troubled marriage. Richardson recognized some of her own mistakes and remembered a time when she lost her mood and hit Kennedy. But she denied many of the claims in Kennedy’s statement and said she had never talked about killing herself in front of the children.

She also included many negative assessments of her alienated husband. “I have witnessed Bobby’s obsessive-compulsive need to not only beat, but also wiped out someone he perceives as an opponent,” she said. She also challenged his authenticity: “He is also known for his passionate, entertaining speech making, hyperbole and total exaggeration.” She added, “He jiggers again facts or makes them up and hurries to tell as many people as he can, so it’s the version of reality that is distributed in people’s mind-classic gas lighting.” She claimed Kennedy had sold “the media in his perfect family.”

Kennedy did not answer questions about this document.

There was a lot of anger and sadness – as well as unhappy accusations – in Richardson’s draft response to Kennedy’s statement. “I’ve carried the burden of Bobby and his family’s most intimate secrets since I was fifteen,” she wrote.

Richardson never filed a version of this document in court. Two months later she was dead.