Boggs’ Ex-Lover Strikes Out With Suit but Can Try Again

A lawsuit filed by a Costa Mesa woman who claims she is the jilted lover of Boston Red Sox star Wade Boggs was thrown out Friday, but the judge will allow her attorney to amend and refile it.

Margo Adams, a 32-year-old former mortgage broker, claims that Boggs, with whom she had a four-year relationship, broke a verbal contract to financially support her. She is seeking $6 million in punitive damages and compensation for lost wages during the time she accompanied him on road trips.

Boggs, 30, who is married and has two children, has admitted that he had an affair with Adams, but he denies that he ever agreed to a contract with her.

His attorney, Jennifer King, argued during the one-hour hearing that such an agreement, if it existed, would have amounted to a contract for sex, which is illegal and thus would be invalid.

Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk ruled that the suit is improperly grounded in law, but she gave Adams’ attorney 30 days to file an amended complaint.

“I find no evidence to support an employment contract,” Palk said. “These are factors you would find in a friendship, not an employment contract.”

Adams’ attorney, James McGee, said that his client has no intention of dropping the suit and that he would file a new complaint to support her claims that a business contract did exist.

Neither Adams nor Boggs was at the hearing.

McGee argued in court that the case should be judged as a standard breach of oral contract rather than a palimony suit that would focus on their domestic and sexual relationship.

“This was an oral agreement that required Miss Adams to travel; it was a business contract,” McGee said. “She was a secretary, a travel companion . . . who rendered services. She transported him to the ballpark, drove him back from the ballpark, arranged his meals and arranged his laundry.”

McGee claimed that Adams was forced to give up a lucrative career to be with Boggs, and that her current job is threatened because of the publicity over the case.

After the hearing, McGee said the amended complaint will include a request for more damages stemming from an FBI investigation into allegations that Adams tried to get money from Boggs two weeks before she filed the lawsuit. McGee said Adams was trying at the time to reach an informal settlement with Boggs.

According to McGee, Boggs may have persuaded FBI agents from Santa Ana to go to Adams’ home to “intimidate” her so that she would not file the suit.

“They pounded on her front door to gain entrance . . . to interrogate her about the charges. Those allegations were unsupported and the investigation was dropped,” McGee said.

King said Boggs notified the FBI after Adams tried to get $100,000 from him.

‘She Called Him’

“She called him and said, ‘I want money, and if you don’t give it to me, I will go to your wife with pictures,” King said.

According to King, Boggs admits that Adams was a welcome guest on road trips during the first two years of their relationship. He paid for her plane tickets and her meals, she said. During the last two years, she said, Boggs tried to end the affair, but Adams threatened to expose it to his wife.

Boggs apologized to his wife of 10 years, Deborah, and they have mended their relationship, King said. She said Boggs is not considering a settlement.

“Debbie knows her husband loves her and she believes he sincerely regrets this affair and that it was a mistake,” King said. “They didn’t think this woman would have gone away after the first $100,000. They felt that this woman was always going to be around, so let’s get her excised.”

McGee said he expects the trial to begin within the next 12 months and that it will last three to four weeks. He said he plans to subpoena several Red Sox players to testify.