Monrovia – A United States-based Liberian woman, Kerbeh Koiwood has complained of constant harassment and intimidation against her by her ‘ex-husband’ Leon Nimley following his deportation from the United States.
Nimley was deported from the United States in 2019 after serving a five-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting his 16-year-old stepdaughter in 2015.
According to Ms. Koiwood, because of Nimley’s behavior, she filed in for divorce at the Superior Court of new Jersey County Mercer and the marriage was annulled on May 29, 2018.
Kerbeh said because all of the couple’s properties were in Liberia, the Superior Court of New Jersey, with the consent of both parties, advised that the courts in Liberia decide the equitable distribution of their properties.
It was against this backdrop, Kerbeh said, she decided to remarry and move on with her life.
So, she travelled to Liberia for the wedding and the equal distribution of her and ex-husband’s properties in a court of competent jurisdiction.
But Ms. Koiwood alleged that Nimley, with the support of some of his family members, has waged a campaign to take away her properties and stop her from getting married.
She said Nimley is also claiming a share of the properties she acquired while he was in jail.
However, Nimley, responding to a FrontPage Africa inquiry, stated that there was no divorce and the purported divorce document was fake.
Ms. Koiwood’s Ordeal
Ms. Koiwood, in an interview with FPA explained that her family had completed the arrangement of the wedding and just within days to the event, Nimley filed a lawsuit at the Unification Town Magisterial Court in Margibi County on charges of bigamy, prompting the Stipendiary Magistrate to halt the wedding.
While the stay order was being enforced, she alleged that Nimley organized thugs that become tailing and constantly harassing her while in Margibi County.
Nimley’s action, she said, led her to lose US$20,000 that the parties used to cover the expenses of the wedding.
And despite the lifting of the stay order by the magisterial Court Judge, Koiwood said she is contemplating on filing a lawsuit against Nimley to pay the damage he caused.
How It started
Ms. Koiwood explained that the pair got married in Liberia before they travelled to the United States after winning the Diversity Visa lottery.
Throughout their marriage, she said Nimley was engaged in extra marital affairs, something they always fussed about.
At one point in the United States, she explained that Nimley was once charged for harassing a prostitute and went to jail.
“That is the life we were living when Leon [Nimley] went to a Spanish club and he called me crying on the phone that they arrested him. Not knowing he went to do prostitution and fell in trouble and they caught him. Though he denied it, the girl he was involved with proved it in court and he was jailed for one week,” Ms. Koiwood explained.
Explaining further, she said it did not occur to her that he would raped a child he had been fathering at the age of three years.
“This day came, on March 15, 2015. It was on my birthday. The children were big now, and I went to work and left him with the children. All of the other children went out and only the girl was with him. Then suddenly I got a call from my work place, and a cop told me that my daughter was at the hospital and I should come,” she said.
She further explained: “So, I went home and joined my husband who pretended to be innocent. So, we drove to the hospital but along the way, he was nervous. When we got to the hospital, she was on the bed. And when I asked, she opened her mouth and said mommy, Daddy raped me. And suddenly, I went off. When I came through, she explained everything to me and said it was his second time.”
Kerbeh said Nimley was taken to court, and after repeatedly denying the allegation, the DNA result confirmed his action, and he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison to be followed by deportation.
Kerbeh said, “I didn’t have any family there, and this girl we took her when she was just three years old, and growing up and looking at her go through those things made me confused. I didn’t know who to go. I had to work to take care of the family and to look for lawyer for him.”
“But I always used to go there [in prison] to tell him that I will divorce him. That’s how in 2017, I filed in for divorce and he appeared in court three times and we divorced. He told the court that only two houses we have in Liberia. All I know is that this man and I have two houses.”
But while in Liberia, she noted that Nimley, is not only claiming that they are still married, but also demanding a share of the properties she acquired out of their marriage.
Now, that the judge has reversed her decision to allow the wedding to take place, Ms. Koiwood said she is planning to file a lawsuit against her ‘ex-husband’ to pay a damage of US$20,000.
Nimley’s Response
Meanwhile, Mr. Nimley, speaking to FrontPage admitted that he was jailed and deported after serving a five-year prison term but there was no divorce.
He accused his ‘wife’ of colluding with his step daughter to accuse him falsely, adding that he was made to confess to the crime he did not commit in order to get a lesser sentence.
Speaking further, he said the divorce document that Ms. Koiwood presented in court was not an original copy, prompting the Stipendiary Magistrate to put a halt to the wedding until an original copy can be presented to substantiate her claims that she is no longer married.
“You cannot kill a man two times. She killed me in America and cannot kill me again. She and I owned all those properties together and I will fight to get my fair share,” he vowed.
“Although I have nothing to do with her anymore, let it be clear that we have not divorced. Is she wants to re-marry, let her do it legally.”
