COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A woman whose request for a same-sex divorce in Ohio was mistakenly granted and then denied by a judge is seeking a redo months later, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gay marriage.
In a new divorce complaint filed last week in Athens County, Brenda Mohney told the court that she married Erin O’Leary in 2008 in California but they have lived apart for more than a year.
The judge listed for the case, George McCarthy, approved an earlier divorce request from Mohney and then vacated that decision last December after discovering that the case involved two women whose marriage wasn’t legally valid under Ohio law. Only Mohney had appeared during the proceedings, and the judge indicated he didn’t realize that both parties were women.
It was an issue of legal authority, not personal views of the women or the relationship, he said.
“The issue of same-sex marriage is one of nationwide concern, and higher courts than this will eventually determine the constitutional issues related thereto with finality,” he wrote at the time.
The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide late last month, and Mohney refiled her divorce case less than three weeks later. It was perhaps no surprise, as judges in Ohio had anticipated the high court’s ruling would affect not only marriage licensing but cases of divorce, adoption, name changes and other family court matters.
A message seeking comment was left Tuesday for Mohney, 44, who recently moved to Rockbridge in southeast Ohio.
The address for O’Leary, 40, is listed in Athens, but local media previously reported that she moved from the area.
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