Out-of-Court Deal Sought in Heckler Divorce

The divorce trial of Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret M. Heckler adjourned today, without her expected testimony, amid indications that an out-of-court settlement might be reached.

“We’ll make every effort to settle this,” Heckler told a crowd of reporters outside the Norfolk County Probate Court where she had been expected to testify about assets accumulated during the couple’s 31-year marriage.

“I am hopeful,” said the secretary, who was accompanied by three security guards. “It’s a very private matter, a painful matter for ourselves and our children.”

With a courtroom packed with reporters, the couple met with Judge Edmund V. Keville for about 75 minutes in his chambers, then met privately with their lawyers before the adjournment was called.

Lawyers Will Meet

Lawyers for Heckler and her husband, John, 57, said they will meet later today to try to reach an out-of-court settlement.

Chiefly in dispute is the value of John Heckler’s Boston brokerage firm, Boston Institutional Services Inc., which has operated since 1971 and now has 14 employees.

An appraiser hired by Secretary Heckler, 53, an eight-term congresswoman who represented suburban Boston, testified last month that her husband’s interest in the firm is worth $4.8 million.

However, in financial disclosure forms filed upon joining President Reagan’s Cabinet two years ago, Heckler reportedly said the brokerage firm was worth $595,000.

Spectacular View

Other assets at issue include the couple’s three-bedroom condominium in Arlington, Va., with a spectacular view over the Potomac River, and their 19th-Century Colonial house in Wellesley, Mass.

John Heckler originally sued for divorce in Virginia in December, 1983, on grounds of desertion and abandonment, but the suit was stayed because the couple’s legal residence was in Wellesley.

The secretary then filed for divorce in Norfolk County Probate Court in Dedham, charging cruel and abusive treatment.

Lawyers for John Heckler told Judge Keville when the trial began that the Cabinet secretary had refused marital relations with her husband since 1963, “condemning him either to a life of celibacy or adultery.”