Ex-courts chief accuses wife of false incompetency claim

Clerk of Courts Brenda Forman was only trying to stall an inevitable divorce when she challenged the mental competency of her estranged husband and political predecessor last year, a Broward judge was told Tuesday.

Former clerk Howard Forman’s lawyers want his wife to pay legal fees they rang up defending him against the claims that he was showing signs of dementia and unable to tend to his own affairs.

Brenda Forman filed the competency challenge late last March, a day after Howard Forman filed for divorce to end their four-year marriage.

Her claim was thrown out last Dec. 5 at a hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Mark Speiser after mental health exBroward perts determined that Howard Forman, 72, is not incapacitated. The divorce is still pending.

But the question of whether Brenda Forman acted in bad faith was the focus of a hearing before Speiser on Tuesday.

Howard Forman’s lawyers argued that she knew he was still mentally sharp. Brenda Forman’s attorney tried to show that she had good reason to question his mental capacity when she did.

Howard Forman called a string of witnesses to vouch for his acuity, including his divorce lawyer James Stark, former County Commissioner Lois Wexler, and Pembroke Pines Commissioner Iris Siple, who was his chief assistant when he ran the Clerk of Courts Office from 2001 to 2016.

The witnesses each said