Robert McCorkle Henderson cop plans to file papers to get full custody of daughter
Henderson police Sgt. Robert McCorkle dreams of the day his nightmarish child custody case in Family Court will finally be over.
In the past three years, his ex-wife has falsely accused him of molesting their child, has thumbed her nose at a judge's orders, and to top it off, she even tried to hire a hit man to kill him.
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"Without a doubt, (it has been) the worst three years of my life," Robert McCorkle told the Review-Journal in the first interview he has given since his family was thrust into the public spotlight by his ex-wife's June 2004 arrest.
"I don't care how bad your divorce is, nobody thinks this will happen to them," he said.
His ex-wife, Florela McCorkle, pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder six months ago and in September was sentenced to prison. She won't be eligible for parole until 2008.
Robert McCorkle now is gearing up to ask a Family Court judge to terminate his ex-wife's parental rights to their 6-year-old daughter.
He finds it incredible that he has "to go to court to fight the parental rights of the woman who tried to murder me."
Nevada law does not dictate that someone convicted of a felony automatically loses their parental rights, and one local attorney said a Family Court judge will eventually have to decide if Florela McCorkle maintains her parental rights.
"The primary consideration in any type of case like this is: Is it in the best interests of the child?" said attorney Stephen Caruso, who recently litigated the high-profile parental rights termination case of another controversial Southern Nevada mother, Tamara Schmidt.
Florela McCorkle's family and her attorneys said this week they will help Florela McCorkle try to keep her parental rights as well.
They counter that Robert McCorkle is the real reason for the family's troubles.
Florela's mother, Gloria Serdinsky, says she still believes Robert McCorkle abused her granddaughter. No one in a position of authority would ever listen to the complaints because he is a police officer, Serdinsky said.
"We don't care about money, child support," Serdinsky said. "Our only interest has been the baby's safety. That has always been our concern."
Serdinsky said Florela became frustrated by a court system that didn't believe her and was desperate when she met with an undercover Las Vegas officer and talked about hiring a hit man.
"Anyone who knows her as a friend, an employee, a mother, knows what type of person she is," Serdinsky said.
After four years of marriage, the McCorkles had ended up in a nasty divorce proceeding in the courtroom of Family Court Judge Anthony Del Vecchio.
Robert McCorkle said his ex-wife had primary custody of their child, and he noticed she was constantly taking their daughter to doctors. He said some suspected that his ex-wife was suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy -- an affliction in which parents, usually mothers, cause their children to become ill and then seek out medical attention so the mother can be seen as the hero.
Robert McCorkle said his ex-wife then "ignored the judge's orders. She changed schools, no child support. If I had done the same thing, I would have been thrown in jail."
Next, Florela McCorkle accused her ex-husband of sexually abusing their daughter.
"That was the worst time of my life," he said.
Henderson police, Las Vegas police and Child Protective Services all investigated the allegations and concluded they were lies aimed at influencing the custody case.
With growing evidence that Florela McCorkle was lying about the child sexual abuse, Del Vecchio took primary custody of the child away from Florela McCorkle and gave it to Robert McCorkle.
Florela McCorkle then tried to win the custody battle by getting rid of her ex-husband. She sought out a hit man who turned out to be Las Vegas police Detective Mark Walton.
"She brought out a thick envelope of all the things that she had on him, to include his police identification, his photo identification badge, she had written down his address, vehicle registration information, his girlfriend's pertinent information," Walton testified to a grand jury.
Florela McCorkle said she didn't want the murder to occur anywhere other than her husband's place of work. She told Walton she would pay him $10,000 for the job, and she provided $1,000 in cash.
Robert McCorkle believes his ex-wife was motivated by two things.
"What set this off was she lost primary custody," Robert McCorkle said. "She wanted the child and my $500,000 in life insurance."
Florela McCorkle's mother does not dispute that her daughter met with the police detective, but she said her daughter acted out of desperation and frustration with a child welfare system and court system that let her down.
And her advocates say what she tried to do regarding her ex-husband doesn't necessarily mean she is a bad mother.
"Everything I have seen indicates to me Florela was an excellent mom," one of her attorneys, Luis Rojas, said. "She had a lapse in judgment."
Robert McCorkle and his attorney, Rhonda Mushkin, hope to convince a judge to the contrary.
They plan to file a motion in the coming weeks to seek the termination of Florela McCorkle's parental rights.
But the threshold for termination of a mother's parental rights is high.
"You have to remember this is a constitutional right we are discussing," said Caruso, who was Schmidt's attorney. "The Supreme Court has decided it is a fundamental liberty."
Meanwhile, Robert Mc-Corkle's price tag for his court battle is $60,000-plus and counting.
"I work a lot of overtime to pay my attorneys' fees," he said.
