LOS ANGELES — The husband of Jim Carrey’s late former girlfriend was paid thousands of dollars by the woman to marry her in a wedding aimed at getting around immigration laws, Carrey’s attorneys allege in new court papers.
Mark Burton’s Los Angeles Superior Court complaint against the 54-year-old Carrey alleges wrongful death and violation of the Drug Dealer Liability Act. Burton was married to Cathriona White, a 30-year-old Irish citizen found dead at her Sherman Oaks home in September 2015. Burton alleges Carrey gave White prescription drugs that she used to commit suicide.
But Carrey’s lawyers state in their court papers filed last Wednesday that Burton was White’s “green card marriage husband” who was compensated by the woman for being wed to her in a “quickie Las Vegas wedding to evade immigration laws” in January 2013.
After the marriage, according to the Carrey attorneys’ court papers, Burton and White went their separate ways.
“Burton abruptly dropped White at the bus station and she returned to Los Angeles and her romance with Carrey,” the actor’s lawyers state in their court papers. “Burton went to Utah.”
Burton’s marriage to White was “a fraudulent fake from the start and void from inception,” according to Carreys’ attorneys’ court papers. A few weeks after the Burton-White marriage ceremony, she and Carrey “shared a romantic Valentine’s Day together,” the actor’s lawyers state in their court papers.
The allegations against Burton are contained in a motion by Carrey’s attorneys that seeks dismissal of the plaintiff’s lawsuit on grounds he had no standing to bring the suit because although he claims to be White’s husband, he never even lived with her.
“To be blunt, the marriage was a sham,” according to Carreys’ attorneys’ court papers. Now, they say, Burton is “looking for a payday.”
The actors’ lawyers also maintain in their court papers that White’s suicide was “an independent intervening force” that cuts off any liability he could have under the Drug Dealer Liability Act.
“White’s suicide, although tragic, was her choice,” Carrey’s lawyers state in their court papers. They also deny that White was upset with Carrey at the time of her suicide for allegedly passing sexually transmitted diseases to her 2 1/2 years earlier, maintaining in their court papers that her suicide notes revealed she loved the actor and apologized to him for her actions.
Burton’s lawsuit, filed Sept. 19, alleges the painkillers Ambien, Propranolol and Percocet were contained in prescription bottles that were found near White’s body, all of which were acquired by Carrey while using the phony name Arthur King.
Carrey used surveillance cameras at the home to keep track of White, the suit states. But although Carrey’s assistant knew that the footage showed the woman last entered the home on Sept. 24, and had not left for more than a day, neither Carrey nor the assistant called police, according to the plaintiff.
After White’s death, Carrey engaged in a “charade” by offering to pay her funeral expenses so as to portray himself as a “grieving good guy” as opposed to “the individual who had illegally obtained and provided the drugs that killed White,” according to the complaint.
In reality, Carrey “never paid a dime of funeral expenses,” the suit alleges.
A hearing on the Carrey motion is scheduled for March 29.