Woman Seeks Payment From Ex-Spouse Who She Says Proved to Be Female

An Orange County woman has alleged in a lawsuit that the man she married in Las Vegas a year ago turned out to be a woman.

Correen Esther Zahnzinger claims in the suit filed last week that her former mate is refusing to make monthly payments on a $300,000 settlement intended to compensate her for being hoodwinked.

Zahnzinger is asking an Orange County Superior Court judge to order Valerie Inga of Santa Ana to honor the agreement.

According to court papers, the two were married in March 1996 and separated seven months later.

Zahnzinger’s lawyer, Steven Zwick, said Tuesday that his client and Inga “did have a sexual relationship, but I’m not allowed to say how it was perpetrated. . . . It was explained to me, and I thought it was realistic.”

The marriage was annulled last March, according to court papers. Zahnzinger has since remarried.

Marlin Stapleton, a lawyer representing Inga, said in a letter to Zahnzinger filed in court that his client was not honoring the settlement agreement because it was “devised upon the notion of ‘blackmail’ on your part.”