The man who asked his ex-wife for a trial by combat to resolve their custody battle was told by a judge to get a psychological evaluation.
While the grueling processes that come along with a divorce and separation are never easy to get over with, 40-year-old David Ostrom from Paola, Kansas, went to extreme lengths to attempt to solve the dispute between him and his former wife.
As The Des Moines Register reported, Mr. Ostrom has requested the judge to solve the matter with a trial by combat involving a sword fight.
As if that wasn’t bizarre enough, the man claimed he was excited to meet his former wife’s champion “on the field of battle where [he] will rend their souls from their corporal bodies.”
“To this day, trial by combat has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States,” Ostrom told the judge before arguing that the infamous practice had been widely used in the past.
However, preparations for a trial by combat apparently take time, whereas Ostrom asked the judge to grant him three months in order to “source or forge katana and wakizashi swords” according to the Carroll Times Herald.
While Ostrom was ready to fight for himself despite having no sword-fighting experience, he suggested that Matthew Hudson, his wife’s lawyer, could serve as her champion so that she wouldn’t have to fight.
“I think I’ve met Mr. Hudson’s absurdity with my own absurdity. If Mr. Hudson is willing to do it, I will meet him. I don’t think he has the guts to do it,” Ostrom reportedly said.
Following months after Ostrom’s bizarre proposal, Iowa District Court judge Craig Dreismeier told the man to take a sanity test and suspended his visitation rights.
“To some extent, David’s feelings concerning the outcome of the dissolution trial and what has transpired afterward, are understandable. Unfortunately, how he has dealt with those feelings is very concerning to this court,” the judge said.
As for Mr. Ostrom, he admitted his idea of a trial by combat was absurd in an interview with KCTV 5. However, he also insisted that it proved to be effective in drawing attention to his case.
“I’ve kind of run out of options and no one pays attention to what I think is a hardship on myself and my children,” he said.
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Replaced!