UPDATE (Sept. 3): An announcement today reveals that a new pregnancy test requested by Dirk Nowitzki and ordered by a Texas judge in late July has been administered, apparently in Missouri. It shows that his ex-fiancée is not currently pregnant. Cristal Taylor was first tested -- by jail officials -- when she was booked in Dallas on May 6th. Those medical results, with virtually 100% accurate lab work by the county hospital, were officially released in late May. At that time, she tested positive for pregnancy. No word on when, precisely, a miscarriage was suffered during the ensuing months of incarceration.
Original Entry:
The saga of the superstar athlete and his fallen angel enters its dénouement phase.
The climax, of course, came in early May. That's when police arrested Cristal Taylor at the home of Dallas Mavericks basketball player Dirk Nowitzki. She'd lived with him for over a year, and he'd presented her with a $200,000 engagement ring this past New Year's Eve.
Don't worry, he could afford it on his $18 million annual salary.
His private investigation, in advance of signing a prenuptial agreement, ended the domestic bliss. Many years earlier, she'd skipped out on probation from Missouri (for forgery), and then ran up a $10,000 dental bill on a credit card in Texas. Despite other pre-Dirk gossip, that's the formal extent of her crime spree that apparently ended nine years ago.
The cops nabbed her while Nowitzki and his team were conveniently out of town during the playoffs, and she's been in jail ever since.
Ah, but it turned out he wasn't exactly unaware of her past. It also turned out she was pregnant, although his attorney initially denied it. Nonetheless, Nowitzki immediately split for his native Germany, where he's remained all summer. From afar, he's asked for DNA tests, promising to seek custody upon confirmation.
If there's indeed a junior Dirkster or Dirkalina in his near future, the offspring has spent most of its fetal development in a ten foot cell, subsisting on prison food and female stress hormone.
Meanwhile, the Ken Lay's and Bernie Madoff's of this world steal billions, and are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise in advance of their trials.
The latest news: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday that Taylor has been sentenced to five years in Missouri for her failure to continue reporting to a parole officer after moving to Texas. She'd already made financial restitution, and pleaded with the judge for mercy in a four page, hand-written letter, to no avail. The $10,000 dental bill in Texas awaits.
Nowitzki should have handled this differently. Yes, she has a felonious background and wasn't straight with him about it. Still, this wasn't a mere summer fling. Serious romance involving adults in their 30's usually has more than one moving part.
The fact is this seven-footer moved Taylor into his mansion to be his personal concubine, to cook for him, do his laundry, share his bed. He topped it off by getting engaged to marry her.
She'd found her meal ticket, and there's no hint or allegation she did less than right by him.
Even in choosing to ultimately wash his hands of her, Nowitzki should have at least gotten a decent lawyer to contact the court and set up her arraignment. This happens every day on matters far more serious, so it wasn't necessary to orchestrate her very public midday arrest.
The eighteen million dollar man dumped her as a ward of the state, after first knocking her up.
His fans think he owed her nothing, that his approach was the fashionable thing to do. A prior comment on Huffington Post read, "If she were {already} his wife and he just found out about her past, I wouldn't fault him for leaving her there." As if a wife -- or a pregnant fiancée -- were nothing more than chattel. (FYI: If Taylor were already his wife, she'd be entitled to the best legal representation their money could buy.)
Comments on sports blogs have trashed her as a skank and a ho. Her mug shot came in for ridicule, too. It seems she didn't look good enough in an orange jumpsuit and no makeup.
Whenever news breaks about a sports hero and a golddigger, we side with the hero. Yet plenty of men and women in polite society hook someone rich through wile and guile. The difference is that we have business dealings with those people, and blow them air kisses at cocktail parties.
Cristal Taylor surely knew the day would come when the piper must be paid. By the time it arrived, Dirk Nowitzki was too involved with her not to help. It's one thing to end a relationship, something else entirely to throw the other person under a bus, along with your unborn child.
She's no angel, but he's no prince. Maybe they're perfect for each other, after all.