VIA: Cincinnati.com
A whirlwind romance swept Pamela Gladwell off of her feet.
A $41,000 engagement ring sealed the deal (modeled by Gladwell above).
Now, though, the ring is the subject of a Hamilton County lawsuit Michael Conliff filed.
Conliff, 50, of Harrison, sued Gladwell, 45, of West Chester Township, saying he gave her the ring in exchange for her promise to marry him. When the engagement ended, Conliff contends, the ring should have gone with him.
The couple began dating in June after meeting on the online dating service eHarmony. They were engaged and living together by July.
Conliff proposed July 25 and sold his house in September. They broke up Sept. 28 and he moved out – without the ring.
Now, he wants it back.
Conliff bought Gladwell a $41,396.55 engagement ring from a Montgomery Jewelry store. The 2.886-carat diamond cost $32,870. The rest of the cost was for the setting and taxes, the suit notes.
Conliff, owner of a business that inspects and maintains foreclosed homes for banks, took out two loans costing him about $600 per month to buy the ring. He still owes about $18,000 in debt on it, his suit notes.
Gladwell doesn’t object to returning the ring – as soon as Conliff repays the money she put toward its purchase.
“I actually have no revenge. I have money that’s tied up in that ring,” she said.
She said the engagement ring was bought after she traded in her $16,000 wedding band from her prior marriage plus some cash.
“There has to be some agreement for me to get my money out of it,” she said.
“I can barely make my house payment. I don’t have a job.”
She has several college degrees and jobs with prominent companies as a trainer and instructor. Now, her only income is as a part-time contractor developing online course work for a university.
“I’m living from paycheck to paycheck,” she said, adding that she supports her high school daughter.
When Conliff moved in, she believed she’d found a perfect match.
“At the time, I thought this was it. Turned out not to be,” she said.
The couple broke up, she said, because Conliff objected to Gladwell letting her unemployed brother live with her until he could recover financially. She claims Conliff sold much of her furniture, replaced it with his and then took his furniture when he moved, leaving several rooms in her house empty.
Conliff, whose attorney wouldn’t let him be interviewed for this story, went to court late last month to ask Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Dennis Helmick to prevent Gladwell from getting rid of the ring.
Helmick ordered her not to sell or dispose of it until the case is resolved. It’s back before the judge Monday.
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