Here is video from the latest news conference by Heather Delgado, the plaintiff against Nikki Araguz in the inheritance lawsuit filed by Delgado, who is attempting to prevent Nikki Araguz from inheriting the proceeds from the estate of her late husband Thomas Araguz. His estate includes fireman's death benefits with an apparent value of as much as $600,000, plus the proceeds of a life insurance policy he had which names Nikki Araguz as its beneficiary.
Clearly, this presentation by Fox News of excerpts from the news conference that Heather Delgado gave is heavily edited, and only contains short snippets of what was surely a much longer interview. The video is also intercut with segments from the video documentary of Nikki Araguz that was made over fifteen years ago. Consequently, the video above does not provide any sort of objective presentation of the information.
However, one point made by the news reporter, is that Heather Delgado doesn't have any explanation for her assertion that Thomas Araguz didn't know Nikki Araguz is a transsexual woman until just a few months ago. Such a claim clearly lacks credibility, and seems difficult for any reasonable person to believe, since Nikki Purdue (Araguz) married Thomas Araguz in August 2008, but she has stated in a video interview that she didn't have what was apparently sex reassignment surgery to create female genitalia for her until October 2008. It seems highly improbable that the two of them could have been living together during that time without Thomas Araguz being aware of the configuration of Nikki Araguz's genitalia and sex organs. As far as the legal issues in the probate/inheritance lawsuit are concerned, the timing of the surgery could become significant, since the date of the surgery implies that Nikki Araguz was morphologically male, i.e. she has male genitals, at the time she and Thomas Araguz were married, and only obtained female genitalia including a vagina months later. Such a fact pattern would undercut the defendant's ability to use an argument that once a transsexual woman has obtained a vagina as a consequent of surgery, she is physically and legally female, and therefore eligibly to marry, since it appears that Nikki (Purdue) Araguz may have had male genitalia at the time she married Thomas Araguz.
One point of speculation that certainly needs to be entertained, is whether or not Nikki Araguz had undergone an orchiectomy prior marrying Thomas Araguz, was able to obtain an affidavit fromm the orchiectomy surgeon that such surgery fulfilled the requirements of California law with regard to sex-reassignment, thereby enabling Nikki Araguz to obtain a female birth certificate from California, which she could then have used to obtain a Texas marriage license. Hopefully the plaintiff's attorneys will be astute enough and knowledgeable enough about transsexual medical treatment to ask such questions when they next depose Nikki Araguz.
Regardless, the war of emotional words, and the over simplified and obtuse claims made by both parties and their attorneys about the legal issues in the case mean little in comparison to what will and must transpire within the confines of court procedure, including upcoming depositions of the parties, and numerous subsequent court hearings. In this most recent video Heather Delgado attempts to place all the blame for what Heather described as "this mess" on Nikki Araguz, when the truth is that Heather Delgado could have avoided the mess she started by filing a lawsuit against Nikki, could have refrained from filing such a lawsuit, and could have accepted half of the $600,000 in fireman's benefits, and could have tried to work out a friendly agreement for support of the young boys. Instead, she has cast herself in the role of a Roman centurion, attempting to use her lawsuit against Nikki Araguz to nail Nikki to a proverbial crucifix, making Nikki a martyr for the cause of marriage rights for transsexual people. Hopefully, the district court in Wharton, Texas will take the case seriously enough to patiently obtain and hear all the facts in detail, regardless of the judgments it renders as a consequence of those facts and the current state of Texas law. In any event, it is very sad indeed that Texas law allows this Nikki Araguz's entire life to be invaded in the service of this sort of oppressive witch hunt against her.
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