John Bujak has filed for divorce; wife asks judge to separate bankruptcy proceedings

The wife of former Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak has asked a bankruptcy court judge to separate her case from her husband's.

Pepper Bujak's attorney filed a motion on Friday. The request comes after John Bujak filed for divorce in July and the couple is "estranged," according to court documents.

In an affidavit filed by Pepper Bujak, she contends she is seeking to separate bankruptcy proceedings because her husband will no longer assist her in the case. She also contends that she shouldn't face prolonged litigation involving hundreds of thousands of dollars sought from the couple because it relates to her husband's actions.

Pepper Bujak also claims her husband asked her to lie to court officials about a Rolex watch. In an affidavit, she claims her husband failed to include the watch on an inventory of assets, later sold the watch and still has half of the proceeds.

Canyon County commissioners contend John Bujak owes them around $300,000. At issue is a $598,000 annual contract for the county prosecutor's office to handle misdemeanor prosecutions for the city of Nampa. That contract, initiated in 2009, sparked considerable controversy and litigation, with commissioners claiming Bujak unlawfully kept about $300,000 in Nampa payments he had promised to the county. The flap led to Bujak's resignation.

Bujak filed a $25 million tort claim against the county in March.

Commissioners say they agreed to let Bujak contract privately with Nampa to provide services through the county prosecutor's office, but Bujak assured them he would share the profits from that contract by using Nampa's payments to cover all non-personnel expenses for the entire prosecutor's office, not just the resources used for Nampa cases. Bujak made similar comments to local media, saying he expected to personally profit by no more than $50,000.

Bujak' s claim says county commissioners "extorted" him to resign and sign the Nampa contract over to the county by threatening to sue him "to collect moneys they knew were not legally due" and prosecute him for "misappropriation of government funds knowing full well that no crime had been committed."

Bujak conteds county officials made false statements about him and met "behind closed doors" with his wife in an attempt to influence her testimony and actions.

Printed By Idaho Statesman

For more information on these matters, please call our office at 305 548 5020. 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoelmolina_mo
Faceback page: www.facebook.com/lawofficeofyoelmolina
Linkedin profile: http://tinyurl.com/linkedinpagemo
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/molawblog

"Turn to us when you need help"