Settlements reached in Mack financial, custody disputes
RENO -- Attorneys handling the civil cases involving Darren Mack, who's charged with killing his wife and shooting their divorce judge, have reached settlements to channel funds to Charla Mack's estate and arrange custody plans for their daughter.
The agreements were hammered out last month and were unsealed on Tuesday at the request of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The settlement doesn't allow Charla Mack's heirs or Darren Mack's mother, Joan Mack, and her heirs to file new legal claims beyond the settlement.
Senior Judge Noel Manoukian has appointed a special guardian for the couple's 9-year-old daughter for legal issues, and the other parties don't have the authority to decide any of the child's legal concerns.
Darren Mack is charged with fatally stabbing Charla Mack on June 12, 2006, and with the sniper shooting of their divorce judge, Chuck Weller, who was wounded. Mack has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial is set to begin Oct. 1.
When Mack appealed a ruling about access to his pension fund to the Nevada Supreme Court, the case was sent to a mediator, who brought all of the parties together.
On April 13, the group finalized a plan for money and custody:
Joan Mack would drop a lawsuit against Charla Mack over a ring and watch from Darren Mack's pawn shop, Palace Jewelry and Loan Co., that Joan Mack said were a loan, but Charla Mack had said were gifts.
Certain jewelry would be sold by Palace, and the money would go to Darren Mack's bankruptcy case.
Joan Mack would purchase Darren Mack's assets from the bankruptcy case and deposit the money into Charla Mack's estate, with the balance going to a trust for Darren Mack's three children, two from a previous marriage and one daughter with Charla Mack.
The agreement included an order by Judge John Iroz, who was overseeing the custody case. The order states that Darren Mack's parental rights will "remain intact and not be terminated."
It also said that although Charla Mack's mother, Soorya Townley, was granted primary custody, she and Joan Mack would share the daughter on an alternating weekly schedule, and Darren Mack would pay $1,500 per month in child support to Townley from his bankruptcy estate.
