Denny Hecker displays a new contriteness

Former car dealer Denny Hecker will be back in divorce court Tuesday with new lawyers and a newly contrite attitude, if recent documents are accurate.

On Monday, Hecker signed a sworn affidavit that said: "I now clearly understand that my decision not to pay any of my court-ordered obligations to my former spouses from the $200,000 [Walser Group] settlement ... was based on a skewed and distorted interpretation of the law." Hecker in part blamed his former lawyer, Bill Skolnick, for bad legal advice -- a notion Skolnick vigorously denied.

In a separate development, the federal bankruptcy trustee accusing Hecker of hiding assets sought permission to question Skolnick and two others in connection with money routed to the fallen auto magnate.

Continuing in his new tone in the Hennepin County matter, Hecker said the alleged bad advice from Skolnick wasn't offered as "an excuse or justification for the transgressions and mistakes, which I alone must take responsibility for."

The five-page mea culpa came on the eve of Hecker's appearances before Hennepin County Judge Jay Quam. Earlier this month, the judge told Hecker to pay overdue alimony and child support to ex-wives Sandra and Tamitha Hecker or show why he can't.

D. Patrick McCullough, Hecker's new lawyer, is seeking a two-week delay in the deadline for Hecker to meet Quam's demands. The judge found Hecker in contempt of court and threatened to jail him if he doesn't pay his ex-wives.

Bill Mauzy, who is defending Hecker on federal criminal matters, gave his client's divorce lawyers a $10,000 check from Mauzy's law firm account, McCullough said. But the St. Paul-based firm of McCullough & Kempe also wants $30,000 to continue representing Hecker in family court.

In his affidavit, he said he used to make $20 million a year and "now ... I am faced with the loss of all of my assets and also almost entirely stripped of my income and ability to earn."

After Hecker filed for bankruptcy in 2009, he believed he would be able to rake in money with lucrative "personal services" contracts with dealerships, but that hasn't been the case, he said.

In a "desperate" attempt to maintain a home, he acted without regard to "any moral compass or common sense" when he "borrowed" about $75,000 from his children's trust accounts, he said.

What he still doesn't reveal is where he got $125,000 to pay back money he took from a 401(k) account. The last-minute payback allowed him to avoid jail. But he does apologize for raiding the 401(k) without Tamitha's OK, saying he did so on Skolnick's advice. But Skolnick said Monday that "is absolutely not true and it's ridiculous."

Hecker said he believed the 401(k) money was his because he alone funded it and he thought it was exempt from bankruptcy proceedings.

The alleged misuse of his children's trust accounts also was an issue in bankruptcy court. Trustee Randy Seaver said Hecker "utilized trust or operating accounts of Skolnick & Shiff, P.A. to pay settlements related to this case and support payments to Tamitha Hecker."

Seaver's attorney recently wrote to the bankruptcy judge complaining that Skolnick presented a $75,000 check to the bankruptcy court on behalf of Hecker and intimated that the check came from one of Hecker's friends. However, Seaver tracked the funds to trust funds belonging to Hecker's children and grandchildren.

Skolnick said he gave some information Monday to Seaver and will continue to do so.

Seaver also asked to depose Scott M. Hoffman because he allegedly knows how Hecker and Hecker's friend Bill Prohofsky used those funds. Prohofsky, who was given oversight of the trusts, committed suicide this month.

Seaver is also seeking to investigate the Focus Rental, an entity that operated out of Hecker's corporate headquarters in St. Louis Park. Seaver said that the entity "borrowed" money from Hecker children's and grandchildren's irrevocable trusts and that it is somehow associated with former Hecker employee James Gustafson.