Estranged spouses in civil legal dispute over criminal charges

GALVESTON - An Arizona woman is suing her estranged husband for almost $11,000 after he filed a criminal complaint against her.

In a lawsuit filed Oct. 7 in Galveston County District Court, plaintiff Stephanie Markiewicz of Phoenix argues that the Galveston County District Attorney's Office dropped a claim alleging she made a threatening phone call to defendant Stephen Markiewicz of League City because it lacked sufficient evidence.

Stephanie Markiewicz and Stephen Markiewicz had an two-year arrangement in which she visited their children under supervision and communicated with them through e-mails, text messages and routed phone calls, according to the original petition.


According to the suit, Stephen Markiewicz filed a series of reports with the League City Police Department from March to April accusing the plaintiff of making threatening phone calls to him. The district attorney declined the first three charges, but accepted the most recent complaint, the suit says.

The Galveston County Sheriff's Department arrested Stephanie Markiewicz in June on charges she violated a protective order. She subsequently posted bond, and the district attorney dismissed Stephen Markiewicz's complaint last month.

The plaintiff states she had to take time off from work to travel to Texas to handle her legal affairs on at least three occasions. She asserts that the defendant brought up the charges against her out of malicious intent.

"The defendant's only purpose in filing this claim was ill will against the plaintiff," the suit says.

"His only intent was to continue to keep plaintiff from having a relationship with her children and to harm the plaintiff."


In addition to the specified monetary damages, a jury trial is requested.

Attorney Jana K. Landry of Friendswood is representing Stephanie Markiewicz, and Galveston County 122nd District Court Judge John Ellisor is presiding over the case.

Case No. 10-cv-3880