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BISBEE — A Cochise County Superior Court judge is requiring a woman to post a $700,000 bond during pending litigation in a civil case involving her deceased husband.
Dr. Gary Forsberg, 61, a Sierra Vista radiologist, was shot Aug. 15 after 9 p.m. in his home when he and his wife, Beverly Forsberg, 67, were handling a gun. He died later at Sierra Vista Regional Health Center.
The court issued a temporary restraining order on Aug. 25 as a result of a request by Gregory Forsberg, the son of Gary Forsberg, to freeze the assets of the deceased man to prevent Beverly Forsberg from accessing them. A hearing on the matter was held Monday.
In a decision dated Wednesday, Judge Stephen Desens granted the defendant’s request to dissolve the temporary restraining order and he denied the plaintiff’s application for a preliminary injunction.
 Dr. Gary Forsberg |
“Plaintiff seeks to have this court interpret the testimony of the witnesses in a state of mind which would presume and require that the court speculate that the defendant, Beverly Forsberg, did intentionally kill her husband when there is no such objective evidence to support such a presumption as yet,” Desens states in the ruling.
“For the court to adopt such a presumption in light of the facts and circumstances known at this time would require the court to ignore as well the constitutional presumption of innocence afforded to all accused individuals under the law even though this is a civil proceeding,” he adds.
The judge ordered Beverly Forsberg to post a bond, or otherwise pledge and give as a security, an asset of Gary Forsberg’s estate in an amount not less than $700,000. He also ordered Gregory Forsberg to post a bond of $7,500 for costs in the matter.
Joel Borowiec, a Sierra Vista attorney representing Gregory Forsberg, explained in an interview Wednesday that the $7,500 bond his client is required to post is based on the fact he is a plaintiff in the case and he is not an Arizona resident.
Borowiec said ethical rules do not allow lawyers involved in litigation to offer their personal beliefs because it may have a prejudicial effect on a trial in the matter. But he said his client believes Gary Forsberg may have been shot intentionally, based on information from people in the community and the lead detective.
“We filed this action to prevent the assets of the estate from being dispersed before a court can decide that the killing was intentional,” Borowiec said. “Arizona law does not allow someone who kills another person intentionally to inherit that person’s property.”
In Wednesday’s issue of the Herald/Review, Michael Piccarreta, a Tucson attorney representing Beverly Forsberg, stated, “It is a sad commentary when people start filing lawsuits and trying to get money while Mrs. Forsberg is still trying to go through the grieving process.”
Borowiec said in response to Piccarreta’s statement: “I think he ignores the fact that Mrs. Forsberg may have lost her husband, maybe it is intentional as we claimed in the lawsuit, but Gregory Forsberg, our client, has lost his father. Marriages come and go in this day and age, but you only get one father.”
During an interview Wednesday, Piccarreta said he considers the judge’s decision as a “win” for his client because the temporary restraining order was dissolved, preliminary injunction was denied, and there is currently no objective evidence that Beverly Forsberg intentionally killed her husband. He said the $700,000 bond imposed by the judge was essentially what the defendant’s attorneys had offered to post.
“Beverly Forsberg did not murder her husband. It was a tragic accident,” Piccarreta said, adding, “There are a lot of gun accidents in this country. Just ask Dick Cheney.”
Herald/Review reporter Jonathon Shacat can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathon.shacat@bisbeereview.net.
Looking4updates wrote on Sep 25, 2008 9:11 AM: