A retired NYPD sergeant who swore never to give a part of his pension to his ex-wife has lost his fight to keep the money for himself.
A retired NYPD sergeant who swore never to give a part of his pension to his ex-wife has lost his fight to keep the money for himself.
Lisa Giangregorio, who was married to former NYPD Sgt. Sebastian Giangregorio, for 18 years, got her first monthly payment July 2, from the New York City Police Pension Fund — a check for $2,756.
The victory came a month after Lisa went public with her story and a noted lawyer volunteered to help.
“First, I was shocked, then I was overjoyed and grateful,” said Lisa, a hairstylist who lives in Naples, Florida, with their three children.
Sebastian, 45, ignored a 2017 order to pay Lisa half of his pension, vowing never to relinquish any part of his pension to his ex-wife, even though he’s under court order to do just that.
“I will never break. . . If my lungs move, she will never get my pension,” Sebastian Giangregorio wrote in an e-mail shortly before his 18-year marriage to wife Lisa ended in Florida.
In a Facebook post shortly before he retired, Sebastian Giangregorio wrote, “I’m a fighter … If I have to work 20 more years, she will not get my pension.”
According to his ex-wife Lisa Giangregorio, the former cop has since moved back to The Bronx in New York, traveled around the world, and ignored an Oct. 24, 2015, court order to pay half his $5,540 monthly NYPD pension and mortgage payments on the house where she and their three children, ages 7, 19, and 20, live.
“First, I was shocked [receiving the check], then I was overjoyed and grateful,” Lisa said
The house is going into foreclosure, Lisa Giangregorio had said a month ago
“There’s no reason why my kids and I should face being thrown into the street. I can’t afford to keep battling to get what’s rightfully mine.”
While Lisa struggles, Sebastian recently vacationed in Aruba with a 24-year-old Venezuelan woman, who chatted with Lisa on Facebook.
“I am in love, I love everything about him,” the woman told the ex-wife, adding, “He gives me money.”
In October 2017, a Florida judge ordered the NYPD fund to pay Lisa’s half of the payments directly. The caveat? Lisa was told she had to go to a New York court for the order to take effect.
Unable to afford the legal fees, New York divorce lawyer Jill Stone came to her rescue. Stone stepped in, pro bono, and had the order filed in New York Supreme Court.
Sebastian, of The Bronx, still owes Lisa $51,000 in pension back payments. In a text message Friday, he said he’d try to pay the debt but added, “Because of false allegations, how can I even earn a living, and your bogus story.
To the rescue: Divorce attorney Jill Stone
While Lisa struggles, Sebastian recently vacationed in Aruba with a 24-year-old Venezuelan woman, who chatted with Lisa on Facebook.
“I am in love, I love everything about him,” the woman told the ex-wife, adding, “He gives me money.”
After Lisa informed her that Sebastian “has three children he doesn’t see,” the woman claimed they had a son together.
Despite Lisa’s pleas, the New York City Police Pension Fund says its hands are tied.
Last month, a Florida judge signed an order requiring the pension fund to pay Lisa directly.
But a lawyer for the fund, Nicole Giambarrese, said it cannot legally do so because the ex-cop has failed to sign a consent form to have the Florida order recognized in New York. If he doesn’t sign it, his ex-wife must go to court in New York to make the order effective in the Empire State.
That would cost thousands in legal fees, and Lisa would have to serve her ex-husband to give him a chance to contest the order before a judge approves it.
Lisa and the couple’s children moved from Westchester County to Naples, Fla, in 2014. Sebastian joined them in 2015, while collecting unused vacation pay, she said. He retired from the NYPD in February 2016 after 22 years on the force. He had pumped up his pension by working a lot of overtime his last three years — making $141,747 in 2014-15, records show.
During the couple’s rocky break-up, amid accusations of domestic violence, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office arrested Sebastian on charges of stalking Lisa and threatening to “get a gun” and kill her.
But a judge dismissed the charges after refusing to admit cell-phone evidence that Sebastian had violated an order of protection. The matrimonial judge, in ordering the pension payments, found Lisa barely making ends meet on her hair-stylist salary, while Sebastian “lives an extravagant lifestyle and has family funds readily available to him.”
THis woman will never get another man after this, not without a stone cold steel prenup. But then she would probly not want to be with the guy if she wasn’t going to get half of his money.