Teresa Giudice’s husband, Luis Ruelas, has drug her former Real Housewives of New Jersey co-star, Kim DePaola, into his ongoing legal battle with former fiancée Vanessa Reiser.
Years into the former couple’s back-and-forth, which has included restraining order requests, financial drama, and claims of controlling behavior, Kim, 64, found herself in the middle of an argument involving not only a potential violation of a past deal but also regarding Vanessa’s counsel.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly on August 14, Vanessa alleged that Luis, 50, accused her of discussing him with Kim, and denied wrongdoing.
As RHONJ fans may recall, Luis’ legal battle with Vanessa began in late 2020, after the exes called it quits after two years of dating. At the time, Luis filed legal documents against Vanessa, demanding she return the $135,000 four-carat engagement ring he bought her and requesting that he be granted a temporary restraining order that would keep her from using their joint credit card and any of their joint funds.
As Luis stated, he supported Vanessa financially during their relationship and paid thousands of dollars worth of deposits for their would-have-been wedding. The couple also bought a $1.7 million home, which he spent money renovating.
In response, Vanessa filed a counterclaim, stating that Luis was controlling and harmed her professional life as she sought her own restraining order but was shot down.
While Luis and Vanessa ultimately came to an agreement in July 2020, which saw the engagement ring being returned to Luis and ordered them both to refrain from making derogatory statements about the other, Luis filed additional documents against Vanessa in October 2024, alleging that Vanessa had violated the deal by trash-talking him on social media, which her lawyer denied.
“Each and every exhibit [Ruelas] has used to allegedly establish a violation … and to establish and alleged contempt, has been refuted and disputed by [Reiser]. Indeed, there is no evidence to establish she violated the consent order; nor is there any proof that [Ruelas] was damaged in any way,” the attorney stated.
Luis then demanded that one of Vanessa’s attorneys, Douglas Anton, be removed from the case, arguing that he had represented Kim in the past, which was a conflict of interest.
“The ethical concerns surrounding an attorney who is caught between conflicting loyalties — namely, his duty to Defendant Reiser and his prior attorney-client relationship with Kim Depeola — undermine the fairness of the proceedings,” Luis’ attorney explained. “Given Mr. Anton’s prior representation of Kim DePaola and his ongoing involvement with her in a professional capacity, there is no question that his continued representation of Reiser is impermissible under both ethical and legal standards.”
But in his own statement, Douglas suggested there was no proof of how his past representation of Kim would impact the case.
“While I certainly do appreciate the concern, this is simply not the case as the representation of Ms. DePaola in the past on the matters for which I have represented her, in no way affects the current representation of defendant Reiser. In fact, it was Ms. DePaola who first referred defendant Reiser to me for me to represent her against plaintiff Ruelas years ago when he was unjustly attacking her,” he stated.
In her own declaration, Kim defended Douglas, revealing that she’d known him for more than 15 years and stating that no “confidential” information existed that would inhibit the case.
“There is no reason I can fathom that Doug should be disqualified from this case,” Kim said.
Luis’ request to have Douglas removed was denied on August 7.
