Updated: Dunwoody Prep Shooting – Settlement Reached in Separation Case

The separation case for Hemy Neuman and his estranged wife Ariela, in some ways, has been more revealing than the criminal case about possible motives in the crime Mr. Neuman is accused of committing.

Ariela Neuman filed for a legal separation from Mr. Neuman in March, two months after he was arrested and charged with the murder of Russell ‘Rusty’ Sneiderman outside of a Dunwoody day care in November.

Documents in the separation case allege that Mr. Neuman was having an affair with Sneiderman’s wife, Andrea Sneiderman, that Mr. Neuman had gone on several trips with Mrs. Sneiderman and that he’d gone to the family shiva for Mr. Sneiderman.

Wednesday, the separation suit was settled in Fulton County Superior Court.

Mrs. Neuman’s attorney Esther Panitch said the settlement gives Mrs. Neuman all of her estranged husband’s assets, including pensions, retirement funds, investments and the East Cobb home. She also will have full and exclusive custody of their minor child.

“She is satisfied that her husband has finally signed over all his assets to her so she can start on with the next portion of her life,” Panitch said.

Panitch said she will continue, along with CPA Warren Binderman who has been assisting in the case, to engage in the discovery process to locate any assets Mr. Neuman had or has.

Panitch said her client chose to go the route of separation rather than divorce because it meant she wouldn’t have to be involved in the criminal trial.

“It protects her from being compelled to testify against him or for him,” Panitch said.

However, Panitch pointed out, Mrs. Neuman has been completely cooperative with law enforcement and all evidence collected in the separation case was handed over to the district attorney’s office.

A divorce is still an option they will likely pursue, Panitch said.

Panitch said that Mrs. Neuman never met Mrs. Sneiderman; the woman she came to believe her husband was having an affair with.

In the spring of 2010, Mrs. Neuman passed Mrs. Sneiderman’s resume to Mr. Neuman who worked at General Electric. A mutual friend had asked Mrs. Neuman help Mrs. Sneiderman as a favor.

Shortly after, Andrea Sneiderman was hired at General Electric, Panitch said, and soon, Mrs. Neuman started seeing a change in the behavior in her husband of 22 years.

“You read those things in the magazines, about top ten signs your spouse is cheating,” Panitch said. “Most of them were there. There were a lot of red flags that alerted her. She’s got a great intuitive sense and she confronted her husband and he denied it and continued to deny it.”

Panitch said Mrs. Neuman then found emails and itineraries for trips the two were allegedly taking together which seemed to indicate more than a business relationship, and confronted Mr. Neuman again.

“He continued to deny it and denies it to this day,” Panitch said.

She and Mr. Neuman had gone their separate ways in October, when after months of what Mrs. Neuman believed was infidelity, he moved out of their East Cobb home.

In the time since his arrest, Mrs. Neuman has struggled to pay the monthly mortgage on the couple’s East Cobb home, which the couple purchased for a half million dollars in 2006.  While Mrs. Neuman works as a part-time teacher, it hasn't been enough to keep up on payments – Mr. Neuman’s income was cut off when he was arrested, setting them back on payments. Their 3,250 square-foot house will be auctioned in foreclosure in July.

Mrs. Neuman talked with Panitch shortly after Mr. Neuman’s arrest, unsure of what to do.

“All the sudden her husband is under arrest for murder and she is left not knowing what’s going on,” Panitch said. “She’s got three children that don’t know what’s going on. Frankly, when they came to me they were all shell shocked.”

Panitch said Mrs. Neuman didn’t know about the arrest until the day it happened, when Dunwoody Police came to her home.

“Their whole world was turned upside down with a knock on the door,” Panitch said.