The Prince of Paradise (21 page)

T
WENTY-
N
INE

“THE WOMAN IS ABSOLUTELY WHACKO”

On June 17, Detective Steve Palazzo received an angry call from Ben Novack Jr., demanding that he arrest Narcy immediately for threatening his life.
The detective refused, advising Novack to hire an attorney instead and get her threats on tape.

“Throughout the whole thing,” Palazzo said, “I kept telling Ben, ‘You need to get as far away from her as you can.
You need to get restraining orders [and] see a divorce attorney.
The woman is absolutely whacko.’”

The next morning, as a precaution, Palazzo arranged to have a patrol car drive past 2501 Del Mar Place, to see if Narcy’s car was there.
After learning that it was not, Palazzo called Ben Novack Jr.
and asked if he had seen his wife recently.

“He said that he was busy,” Palazzo wrote, “and would call me later.”

Suddenly the detective heard Narcy’s distinctive voice in the background, and asked Ben if she was with him.

“He told me it was none of my business,” Palazzo wrote, “and he would call later.
Then … Narcy picked up another phone in the house.
Both began speaking.
Narcy stated that they were getting back together.
They had arranged to get counseling.
Suddenly both began to argue.”

The detective turned on his tape recorder and recorded the conversation.
Now they both admitted that Narcy had been back home for days, and that Ben had gotten her a room in a hotel after she took his amputee photographs to the police.

“The two continued to argue,” Palazzo wrote, “and eventually blamed me and the police department for interfering in their lives.”

Then Novak said he had only let her back to the house to record her threats against him on tape.
On hearing this, Narcy announced that she was leaving and never coming back.

“The conversation is preserved on tape,” Palazzo wrote, “and will be placed in evidence along with the other tapes.”

The next day, Narcy went to Broward County Family Court and swore out another complaint against her husband.
A judge then evicted Ben from his own house, allowing Narcy to move back in.

*   *   *

The following morning, Ben Novack Jr.
hired Fort Lauderdale attorney Don Spadaro to help him get back in his house.

“He was just very upset,” Spadaro recalled in 2011.
“He had been physically removed from the house when they served him with the restraining order.”

Then Novack recounted to Spadaro how he had been held at gunpoint in his bedroom while some men took $440,000 from his safe, and that Narcy had been involved.

“So he told me this wild story,” Spadaro said, “and his focus at that point was that he wanted to get in the house, because all his business paperwork and whatever was in [there].
He felt that his business was going to go down the tubes if he couldn’t get in there.”

After their meeting, Spadaro filed for an emergency hearing at Broward County Family Court, which was held the next day in front of circuit court judge Geoffrey Cohen.

“We were able to convince Narcy to modify the restraining order,” said Spadaro, “so that he could get back into the house.”

Under the order, Ben Novack Jr.
would be allowed to reside at the residence “to conduct his business,” while Nancy stayed in the guesthouse and could enter the main residence only to do her laundry.

“No other harmful conduct shall occur between the parties,” ordered Judge Cohen, who called another hearing for June 25, to rule on Narcy’s restraining order.

After the hearing, Novack told his new lawyer that if Narcy refused to drop the restraining order and didn’t return his money, he was filing for divorce.
He then had Spadaro draw up a divorce petition on the grounds that the marriage was irretrievably broken down.

As they drafted the divorce petition together, Novack insisted that the attorney incorporate Narcy’s alleged threats against his life during the home invasion.

“I would never have put them in but for Ben’s insistence,” Spadaro explained.
“I said, ‘Ben, if you want me to put this in there, you’ve got to tell me straight from your mouth.’
And of course I had him sign this.”

Section 10 of the divorce petition read, “That the petitioner is fearful that when the Respondent received notice of the filing of this Dissolution of Marriage that violence will come to him as the Respondent previously has falsely imprisoned Petitioner in order to remove assets, including but not limited to cash, furnishings, antiques, family heirloom jewelry, firearms, and business files necessary for Petitioner/Husband’s business.”

Section 13 was even more damning:

“That the Petitioner/Husband is fearful that unless this honorable court enters a restraining order against the Respondent/Wife, that his life is in danger.
The Respondent/Wife has threatened: a) ‘That if I can’t have you, then no one will have you.’; and b) that ‘the men that helped me remove the property from the house will come back and finish the job … I can have you killed anytime I want … you’re not dead now because I stopped them the other night.’”

*   *   *

On Wednesday, June 19, Don Spadaro filed the divorce petition, along with the couple’s original August 1991 prenuptial agreement, in circuit court.
Two days later, Ben Novack Jr.
posted a $50,000 bond and was granted a temporary injunction against Narcy, freezing all the cash and the rest of his belongings that had been removed from the house.
These included all the pornographic photo albums, magazines, and negatives Narcy had taken.

In her order, circuit court judge Patricia Coralis granted Ben Novack Jr.
exclusive use of the marital home.
“Narcy Novack is hereby restrained from coming in the marital property,” read the order, “and/or entering the marital home … pending further order of the court.
Narcy Novack is also further restrained from molesting, harassing, physically hurting or abusing the husband … at any time or any place.”

*   *   *

On Tuesday, June 25, Narcy Novack told Judge Cohen at an evidentiary hearing that Ben was violently abusive and a pervert, lusting after amputee porn.

“She goes forward and testifies ‘he’s hit me in the stomach,’” said Spadaro, who cross-examined her.
“And she’s Hispanic, so her language is whatever, but she certainly described that he slapped [her] and spit on [her].”

After Narcy’s testimony, Ben Novack Jr.
told the judge that he had been held hostage under Narcy’s direction for more than a day, with a gun to his head.
Then Detective Steve Palazzo took the stand to testify about the ongoing investigation.

“And I think Judge Cohen was kind of shocked,” Spadaro recalled.

Bernice Novack attended the closed hearing, sitting next to her son.
Estelle Fernandez had offered to go with her for moral support, but Bernice had refused.

“She was so mortified,” Estelle recalled.
“She said, ‘No, I don’t want anybody to know how my daughter-in-law is.’
And then in court Narcy was telling all these stories about Ben having this fetish with amputee models and pictures.
And Bernice would say, ‘Oh my God.
She’s crazy.
She’s crazy.’”

*   *   *

By the beginning of July, Ben and Nancy Novack had reconciled again, after she agreed to repay $175,000.
Then, on July 10, after she paid a first installment of $75,000, they both signed a “Confirmation of Understanding” and had it notarized.

This six-point document, which Novack’s divorce attorney, Don Spadaro, had not been consulted on, stipulated that “certain private items” must be kept private or the agreement was void.
It also stated that Ben would agree to drop the divorce action and allow Narcy to come back home.

It read:

1.
That Ben and Narcy wish to do everything possible to reconcile their relationship and move forward with their lives, together.

2.
That Ben and Narcy have agreed to seek marital counseling from a professional in this field.
Narcy will locate some qualified individuals for this and together Ben and Narcy will mutually agree on which one or ones to utilize.
This action will be done immediately.

3.
That Ben and Narcy have agreed to other certain private items that will be honored mutually by both parties to keep this document and agreement valid.
Should any of those items not be honored by one or both parties this agreement ceases.

4.
That Ben and Narcy will place a privately agreed sum of money into a joint investment, chosen by mutual agreement, and which can subsequently be touched only by both parties together and neither one individually.

5.
That upon full completion of #4 above, Narcy will return to the house and Ben will drop the Marriage Dissolution action and all related actions in that filing.

6.
If at any point during the 8 month period following the completion of the above actions it becomes apparent that the relationship is not going to work out, that Ben will provide for a reasonable and mutually agreeable house or apartment for Narcy to reside in, at Ben’s expense, for a period of one year following.

A few days later, Ben Novack Jr.
brought Narcy to Don Spadaro’s office and instructed Spadaro to drop the divorce action.
As Narcy waited in the foyer, Novack went into Spadaro’s office and handed him a copy of the “Confirmation of Understanding” and a receipt for $75,000.

“He came in and said [they’d] reconciled,” recalled Spadaro.
“And I brought him in here, because she was in my waiting room.
Then I closed the door and said, ‘Are you crazy?
[How can anybody] that went through what you went through, go back and reconcile?’”

The attorney asked how Ben knew Narcy wouldn’t have somebody break into the house again to rob him, perhaps killing him the next time.
Novack replied that he still loved Narcy, and they were back together.

“I still tried to convince him that he was nuts,” said Spadaro.
“After what he went through, having a gun put to his head.
But I have since learned that they had some sort of kinky sexual thing going on … that he enjoyed, and he wanted to keep that relationship together.

“That was pretty much the end of my involvement.
When he walked out of that door that day I never saw him again.”

Seven years later, May Abad would allege that her mother had blackmailed Ben Novack Jr.
into paying her $6,500 a month, threatening to go public with his fetish for “photographs … involving nude bodies with amputated arms and limbs.”

*   *   *

When Hollywood police chief Jim Scarberry learned of the reconciliation, he was appalled.
Although they had spoken almost daily since the home invasion, it was weeks before Ben told him that Narcy was behind the attack.

“I had asked him how the investigation was going,” Scarberry said.
“He told me that Narcy had apologized, and they were going to get back together.”

Chief Scarberry said he was “nuts,” and warned him that Narcy might kill him the next time.
Ben replied that he still loved Narcy and they were going into marriage counseling to work things out.
Then Scarberry told him never to call him again.

“I was hoping that would entice him to make a decision to get away from her,” he explained.
“But that didn’t happen, and that was the last time I spoke to him.”

Charlie Seraydar found out that the divorce had been called off only when he called the Novack house and Narcy answered the phone.

“That surprised the hell out of me,” Seraydar said, “because Ben was calling me every single day.
Then I happen to call him back one day and she answers the phone.
And she was as nice as shit to me, and I was nice to her.”

When they next met, Seraydar told his old friend that he was a “fucking idiot” for taking Narcy back, after what she had done.
“I just said, ‘Ben, I’m not going to pass judgment on you, but look what you were put through.’
And he says, ‘I know, but we’re going to marriage counseling, and I’m seeing a psychologist.’”

Seraydar then asked why he was going back to Narcy.
Ben replied that he still loved her and did not want to lose everything that he had built up over the years.

“Then I said to him, ‘Is it worth your life?’”

Ben’s old school friend Kelsey Grammer was also concerned Ben had gone back to Narcy.
“It seemed like classic abused-victim behavior,” the actor later told
People
magazine.
“He was terrified of her.”

*   *   *