Man jailed for marrying off teen son during divorce proceedings

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Fisher Island millionaire Dan Rotta must serve 180 days in jail ? for allowing his 16-year-old son to get hitched in Las Vegas to his housekeeper?s daughter.

The charge: contempt of court, a Miami-Dade judge ruled. Rotta had been ordered by the court to take his son to a Utah boarding school, but instead the dad took him to Sin City for the marriage, which ?emancipated? the troubled teen from the court?s oversight.

Dan Rotta?s ?facilitating? of the shotgun wedding was ?simply shocking? and ?clearly intended to thwart? the court?s order to admit the teen into the Logan River Academy in Utah, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge John Schlesinger wrote in Tuesday?s order.

Officers booked Rotta, 65, into Miami-Dade County Jail, where he remained late Wednesday.

Rotta?s attorney, Neal Lewis, said he ?respectfully disagrees? with the judge?s ruling and is appealing the sentence to the Third District Court of Appeal.

The teen, now legally an adult because of the marriage, is living on his own at his father?s penthouse on the exclusive island enclave. Reached by phone, the teen declined to discuss the situation.

Asked if the wedding was a sham, he only replied: ?It?s not. We?ve known each other for eight years.?

The saga stems from long-running legal disputes in the divorce proceedings between Rotta and ex-wife Renee Rotta of Aventura.

The teen was due to report to the school in December 2010. But according to the court, one day after the son?s 16th birthday that month, Rotta took him to Las Vegas. With them: Diana Esperanza Mendoza Guzman, the family?s housekeeper?s 18-year-old Colombian-born daughter.

In Nevada, a minor only needs one parental signature to consent to an underage marriage. Although they share joint custody of their son, Rotta signed the consent for his son to marry Guzman without his ex-wife?s knowledge.

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