Haacke v. Glenn

Leslie Ann Haacke (plaintiff) and Mark Mitchell Glenn (defendant) were married in December 1989. At the time of the marriage, Haacke was employed as an attorney by the Inspector General’s Division of the Utah Department of Corrections. Due to her job, marriage to a convicted felon would be a severe conflict of interest and would place Haacke in violation of state law, policy, and procedure. Before and during the marriage, Glenn purposefully concealed that he had been convicted in Alabama of a second-degree felony for theft of property. During the marriage, Glenn traveled frequently to Alabama and made payment of fines and restitutions related to his felony conviction from joint funds. Glenn lied to Haacke and told her he was making the trips and payments toward child-support arrearages. Ultimately, Haacke was informed about Glenn’s criminal record by her employer in September 1990 and her employment was terminated due to conflict of interest. Haacke’s employer informed her that her employment could be reinstated if her marriage were terminated, eliminating the conflict of interest, but that a divorce would result in a departmental investigation as to whether or not she was aware of Glenn’s record prior to the marriage. Haacke filed for an annulment, and the parties entered into a stipulation consenting to the entry of an annulment decree. However, the trial court refused to grant the annulment and instead granted a divorce. Haacke appealed.