A Pima County Superior Court judge has ordered UA basketball coach Lute Olson and his estranged wife, Christine, to take their divorce battle to the privacy of his courtroom after months of publicly criticizing one another from afar.
Judge Carmine Cornelio has directed the couple to appear together — or at least in the same courtroom — for a closed and confidential divorce settlement conference on May 30. Cornelio further ordered all future legal filings related to the possible settlement to be sealed.
And he admonished the pair that violations of the gag order will draw a contempt of court citation, at a minimum.
The notice, dated May 8, says the hearing is being scheduled in anticipation that there are no more outstanding or unresolved issues that will "seriously impair negotiations."
The notice gives both Olsons an opportunity to notify the court if that's not the case so the judge doesn't waste time or public money on a proceeding that's going nowhere.
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Besides news coverage of the allegations included in their public court filings, over the past month, Mrs. Olson has been featured twice in lengthy Arizona Republic stories about the marital breakdown.
Meanwhile, Coach Olson called in to a radio station to defend his actions in the divorce, as well as respond to news coverage of his leave of absence from coaching at the University of Arizona last season, which he requested about a month before the divorce was filed.
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