Network TV show spotlights marital-fraud case tonight COURTS: Estranged couple who made headlines across the nation take their marital-fraud case to prime time.

July 1, 1993 Byline: KRISTINA HORTON The Orange County Register

Ronald and Bonnette Askew told their tale of love, lies and marriage to an Orange County jury in April.

Tonight, they tell their sides of the marital-fraud case again _ this time on national television.

The Askews aren't doing it for money. A new CBS news magazine show, Connie Chung's "Eye to Eye," doesn't pay for its interviews. The show airs on KCBS/2 at 9 p.m.

But Bonnette Askew's attorney, Richard Millar, said he fielded media calls from as far away as Sweden, Britain and Australia before choosing Chung's show for their first American TV interview.

Ronald Askew, an Anaheim bank president, sued his wife in 1991 for fraud, alleging she lied to him in saying she loved him before their wedding day. His lawyer, Albert Graham Jr., said Bonnette Askew broke an agreement to jointly hold her husband's property for their children.

A jury concluded in April that Bonnette Askew of Santa Ana had defrauded her husband. Ronald Askew was awarded $242,000 in damages, later awarded in the return of his wife's half of four properties.

Some lawyers have questioned whether the case will offer a way around the state's no-fault divorce law, which requires shared property to be split evenly.

Millar has filed a motion for a new trial. He contends that "spousal pillow talk" and measuring love and sexual enjoyment in a marriage are not matters to be decided in court. He insists the case belongs in divorce court, not a civil-fraud trial.