Difficult ends to personal relationships aren’t usually news, but when the couple involved are Sam Slom, the sole Republican in the Hawaii State Senate, and reporter Malia Zimmerman, the high-profile co-founder of Hawaii Reporter who pushed a conservative spin on news for well over a decade, there’s legitimate public interest in what might otherwise be dismissed as simply gossip.
Zimmerman filed a lawsuit in First Circuit Court two months ago accusing Slom of refusing to follow through with a mutually agreed cash settlement reflecting her share of a Hawaii Kai home where the couple lived together for ten years. The lawsuit argues that Zimmerman should be repaid for what she paid to maintain and improve the property, as well as her share of the mortgage, taxes, and similar expenses for the house in which she was a half-owner as well as half of a politically conservative power couple.
Zimmerman filed her lawsuit on July 2, 2015. It was originally filed pro se, without a lawyer, but she is now represented by Maui attorney Matson Kelley.
And through her attorney, Zimmerman has now asked for a jury trial.
According to Zimmerman’s complaint:
• Zimmerman was divorced with custody of her child when she met Slom. She was 30 years old and Slom was 56.
• When Slom’s divorce was finalized in 2002, Zimmerman says he “offered to be in an exclusive relationship…and to live with her for the rest of their lives.”
• The two went house hunting, and in late 2003 their offer on a 2,392 square foot home in Hawaii Kai was accepted.
• Zimmerman alleges that Slom advised that her name should not be on the deed because her post-divorce credit rating might cause problems getting a mortgage. Slom assured Zimmerman “she would be an equal, equitable owner of the home even though her name would not be not the deed.” Further, Slom assured her that she would inherit the house when he died.
• They lived together in the home from 2003 to 2013.
• Based on Slom’s assurances that she was actually a half-owner of the property, Zimmerman “paid a portion of the mortgage, real property taxes, homeowners’ insurance and other costs of ownership,” the complaint alleges.
• Zimmerman says her sister and brother-in-law invested money in improvements and renovations, adding to the value of “our house.”
• Zimmerman says she used her own funds to paint the house, fix the roof, and retile the front of the house and the back yard area.
• She says she paid $440 per month for a cleaning service, and additional sums for regular cleaning of windows and screens.
• In April 2013, according to the complain, Slom, “then 71 years old, allegedly began having an affair with a 26-year old woman.”
• Slom denied the affair, but in early September 2013, Zimmerman confirmed the new relationship by following Slom to the new girlfriend’s apartment one night. Zimmerman then moved out of the house they had shared.
• Zimmerman says Slom agreed to pay her a cash settlement, but that he later refused to sign the agreement after it had been drafted by her attorney.
The lawsuit is seeking reimbursement for her financial contributions to the property, including “the mortgage, real property taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, repairs, improvements,” and so on. It also seeks special and general damages, in an amount to be proved at trial.
The lawsuit asks the court to force a sale of the home and a distribution of the proceeds, after reimbursing Zimmerman for her share of the costs over the decade.
Slom’s response, filed by attorney John S. Carroll, denies Zimmerman’s allegations, and says he should be awarded any amounts that he has to spend on his defense.
The detailed description of the couple’s intertwined finances appears to raise conflict of interest concerns about Zimmerman’s reporting on Slom.
Back in 2008, Darryl Huff, then a reporter for KITV, used his blog (no longer online) to blast the many ties between Zimmerman and Hawaii Reporter, on one side, and Slom and his Small Business Hawaii on the other.
The way it works is like an echo chamber. The politician who can’t sell his point of view in the mainstream media finds an ally who sets up a blog that looks like a real news organization. That blog endorses the politician’s opinions and friends and attacks anyone who disagrees. Organizations affiliated with the politician praise the blog for its courage and journalistic enterprise. The politician uses the blog to affirm his arguments. And so on.
To get the whole picture, I’ll have to track back to the reporting, which never disclosed the extent of the personal and financial relationships between Zimmerman, the journalist and owner of Hawaii Reporter, and Slom.
Or maybe some readers will want to do some of the digging. If so, please share.
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Some comments:
1) I’m no fan of Sen. Slom, but based on the sort of “reporting” Malia has made her livelihood from, I couldn’t in good conscience judge this dispute based on her side of the story alone. Guess we’ll see how this all unfolds in court.
2) With all of the experience Malia has had with covering scams and frauds, it’s quite astonishing that she made herself so vulnerable to getting taken to the cleaners like this… assuming once again that her allegations are true.
3) The greatest single legacy of Hawaii Reporter will always be the smear job on Duke Bainum’s wife just a few days before the ’04 mayoral election. If not for that bit of muckraking, our city might never have had a Mayor Mufi and everything that entailed.
Hawaii law is clear, No Common Law recognition. the claim does not merrit a demand for partition of property as Senator Slom is sole owner. The claim by Zimmerman is simple political embarrassment and possible minor promissory issues. The martial license means 50/50 in Hawaii a “No Fault Divorce State”. No marriage no share. Besides Slom promised too serve no more than two (2) terms, that was a decade ago. As for the 26 year old that may explain His near collapse and slurred speach on opening day. A sad ending, too the sole business /conservative balance.
The law suit seems to approach this as a business deal. It alleges breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and so forth. It does not refer to marriage, divorce, etc.
Repug-licans are standouts for pontificating on family and moral values, but are notorious for not walking the talk.
In this case, Slom would be better off, financially, settling. Wish we had a Hawaii Inquirer. This is great local tabloid fodder.
zimmerman knew what she was getting into. slom had an affair and dumped his family, married someone else. then had an affair on that wife w/malia. good reporters see the patterns.
despite her politics, zimmerman was not an honest reporter.
Wow! Very interesting. I just can’t get over the fact that she poured all that money into the property when her name wasn’t on the deed. How ridiculous. She really believed his reason for keeping it in his name only? In addition, try as I might, I just can’t envision Slom as a romantic figure. Okay, I’m not trying very hard to do that.
Agree with Judith. Malia is a shrewd person and cannot believe she would have not insisted on having her name on the deed. I hope she is doing well on her job with Fox.
Comments by Allen N. worth noting:
“The greatest single legacy of Hawaii Reporter will always be the smear job on Duke Bainum’s wife just a few days before the ’04 mayoral election. If not for that bit of muckraking, our city might never have had a Mayor Mufi and everything that entailed.”
It’s an interesting perspective for when the anti-rail crowd gets all ruffled b/c of the latest not-really-news story about the elevated rail project’s *predictable* cost overruns and delay.
So had it not been for the good Senator Slom and his loyal (’til now) troupe, our city could currently be on an entirely different transportation path!?! Could LOL all day long from just this one what-if.
big hero six,
yes.
political vengeance:
what’s good for the silly goose is good for the silly gander.
Just before he died, wasn’t Dr. Bainum in support of an at-grade rail system, as compared to the elevated system that was ultimately chosen?
Obviously, animosity was a-plenty between Mufi and Duke after the ’04 election. But it didn’t turn Duke into an anti-rail luddite when he returned to the city council. He had constructive ideas and didn’t get back into city politics merely to be a thorn in Mufi’s side.
IOW, I don’t know about the notion that Duke was going to be a savior for the anti-rail crowd had he been elected mayor.
I doubt they’ll ever call me as a witness. But the one time I met with Malia at the house in question (around 2008), she clearly told me this was Sam’s house and that she was staying there and running her website from there. Maybe she was trying to downplay their relationship, but she said that she and her son moved into “Sam’s house”. According to the lawsuit above, Malia had already been living there for five or six years. So the proposition that she saw the house as jointly owned comes as a complete surprise to me.
lies are the easy way out.
lies rarely work when liars are caught off guard.
if god really existed, none of us would go to heaven.
amen!
nep·o·tism
noun
the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.
Thanks heavens for forgiveness.
With Eric Ryan as a witness and John Carroll as a lawyer, Sam can’t lose.
Oldies but Goodies-
http://www.ilind.net/2015/01/03/small-business-group-lost-its-tax-exemption-prior-to-disbanding/