New York father and son sanctioned in little one custody case tied to arrest in The Villages

A father and son, embroiled in a custody case in which the mother faces a criminal charge in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown, have been sanctioned in a New York court in connection with the acrimonious dispute.

Holly Ilene Finley, 39, of Wayne, NJ, is facing a charge of illegally audio recording a 2020 Face Time conversation with her mother-in-law, a resident of the Village of Buttonwood. Finley was in New Jersey when the FaceTime call was placed. Such a recording is legal in New York or New Jersey, but not in Florida.

Holly Finley and her attorneys later submitted the recording to a court in New York as part of a divorce and child custody case involving Finley and the Villager’s son, Richard Finley.

Earlier this month, a judge in Rockland County, NY ordered Richard Finley to pay $10,000 to the State of New York as a sanction for lying in court. He was also ordered to pay $10,500 of his estranged wife’s additional attorney’s fees. Furthermore, Richard Finley’s father, Anthony, acting in the capacity as his son’s attorney, was also ordered to pay a $10,000 penalty to the State of New York for improper actions in the case.

Court documents indicate that Richard Finley played down his role in his mother’s criminal complaint against Holly Finley with regard to the recorded Facetime conversation. However, at trial, Holly Finley’s attorney’s presented the Sumter County sheriff’s deputy’s body camera video which showed that Richard Finley took the lead in getting the criminal complaint filed.

Anthony Finley apparently tried to use the press coverage of Holly Finley’s criminal case in The Villages as a bargaining chip to try to convince her lawyer to back down.

Finley pointed to coverage in Villages-News.com and said “that type of press down in The Villages, a place that has a lot of people originally from New York who have family up in New York, would not be good” for the law firm representing Holly Finley in the New York case.

The court document also said that Richard Finley has enjoyed “free legal counsel via his father for some time now” while Holly Finley “does not have access to these resources.”

Holly Finley’s evase-dropping case is still pending in Sumter County Court.