The South Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that a woman ironically named Chastity Chastain did not engage in “flagrant promiscuity” by having two extramarital affairs but still awarded custody of her children to her ex-husband.

Tyson Chastain, a former golf pro, filed for divorce in August 2005 after finding out that his wife was having an affair with a co-worker. Two months later, she began an affair with another co-worker, Lee Dotson, while separated from her husband..

Not to be outdone, Tyson had an affair with Dotson's wife, who was separated from Dotson at the time.

In awarding Tyson custody of the couple's three children, Florence County Family Court Judge Arthur E. Morehead found that Chastity engaged in flagrant promiscuity -– which, under Boykin v. Boykin, 370 S.E.2d 884 (1988), is considered detrimental per se to the welfare of a child.

The mother in Boykin was found flagrantly promiscuous after admitting she had sex with at least five men during a period of less than a year. “Flagrant promiscuity on the part of a custodial parent will, we hold, inevitably affect the welfare of the child and establish a watershed in the court's quest to protect the best interest of a minor child,” the South Carolina Court of Appeals said.

In a Jan. 12 opinion, the same court was more forgiving of Chastity Chastain's dalliances than Judge Morehead. Flagrant promiscuity, it said, “is meant to be invoked sparingly -- to embrace that rare situation of glaringly bad and outrageous conduct not present in these facts.”

Nevertheless, Chief Judge Kaye G. Hearn, writing for the court, upheld the custody award to Tyson Chastain. She cited evidence that Chastity “exposed her children to safety risks while they were in her care” and unlike her ex-husband, who doesn't play golf anymore, has a “very inflexible” work schedule.

Adding salt to Chastity's wounds, she must pay $2,500 to her ex-husband for fees he incurred having a private investigator snoop on her. “Wife never objected to the family court’s award of private investigator fees to Husband at trial or in a post-trial motion,” Hearn said, finding she did not preserve the issue for appellate review.

By Matthew Heller
1/21/09