In the Republican primary for the District 20 state Senate seat, Dr. Ron McDow is running a race believed to be competitive against Sen. Steve Dickerson. Like Dickerson, he is a medical doctor, but he also founded a successful, multimillion-dollar company specializing in cryotherapy technology. McDow is a Republican National Convention delegate for Donald Trump and a member of the Tennessee Republican Party’s Statewide Executive Committee since 2014.
And according to a series of court filings in the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, McDow was allegedly an abusive husband.
Asked about the claims Monday, McDow denies that he was ever violent with his then-wife, Mary Wester.
“The allegations are not true,” McDow said.
However, Wester took out an order of protection against McDow in November 1990, after which a restraining order was issued. McDow was later ordered to vacate the house that December. Wester filed for divorce, but the couple reconciled in 1992. Yet another order of protection was issued in August 1993, and stayed in place until June 1994. And multiple filings in the couple’s 2005 divorce allege repeated instances of physical and emotional violence.
Wester declined to comment on the specifics of her past allegations, stating only, “I stand by what I filed.” But what she filed is upsetting to read.
McDow and Wester married on Dec. 30, 1989, three years after McDow’s divorce from his first wife, Elizabeth Wilson, was finalized. In a filing from that first divorce, her amendment to the divorce complaint states, “Husband has been guilty of such cruel and inhuman conduct towards the spouse as renders cohabitation unsafe and improper.”
However, when reached by phone Monday, Wilson said she wasn’t sure to what it referred. “It’s been so long, I couldn’t tell you why it says that,” she said. When asked if McDow had ever been physically violent, she said no, but she declined to comment as to whether there had been anger or temperament issues during the marriage.
For his part, McDow says his first divorce was “amicable” and that the pair had married too young and then grew apart while they spent several years long distance while Wilson was in law school in Knoxville and he was in medical school in Memphis.
Whatever happened in that first marriage and divorce, less than a year after their wedding, on Nov. 19, 1990, Wester filed an order of protection against McDow. The filing states, “I have been attending classes on women who are victims of domestic violence. I have been abused in the past by Ron (respondent). On Friday (11/16) I confronted him about the previous abuse. I needed to know that he would never hurt me again. He threatened me and said ‘I will if you get crazy again!’ He wouldn’t define crazy and called me a ‘bitch’ and went upstairs. Yesterday (11/18) he was in a rage because we didn’t have room in the garage to put a punching bag. He was yelling and screaming and calling me names. I am terrified of what this man will do next. He has guns in the house. He tells me that he will deny previous abuse. He blames me and others for his violent outbursts.”
The order of protection was granted and stayed in place for a full year. Shortly thereafter, Wester filed for divorce. The complaint alleges “cruel and inhuman treatment,” and specifically alleges McDow had threatened to hide money in offshore accounts to prevent her from getting any and that he had threatened to destroy her property if she tried to take money out of a bank account.
The document also alleges, “Husband has been verbally and physically abusive to wife during the marriage. On one occasion in February, 1990, he grabbed her by the shoulders and neck and threw her off the couch onto the floor. He threatened to hurt her again if she disagreed with him in public.” On Nov. 28, 1990, a full restraining order against McDow was granted. However, another motion alleges that on the night of the 28th, McDow came to the friends’ house where she was staying and threatened her. On Dec. 14, McDow was ordered to vacate the marital home by Dec. 17.
Yet despite the alleged threats, the pair kept working together on their startup, CryoSurgery, Inc. In March 1992, the court dissolved the restraining orders under an order of reconciliation. The divorce filing was dismissed Nov. 16, 1992.
But by late summer the next year, things were bad again. On Aug. 9, 1993, Wester again filed for an order of protection. The document alleges, “On July 25, 1993, respondent threatened to rip off petitioner’s shirt, then did so. He also ripped her bra off and shoved her into the patio glass door, leaving bruises on her arm. Then on July 27, 1993, he shut the front door on her hand and also on her upper arm and elbow. On August 6, 1993, he shoved her onto the kitchen counter and into the cabinets, causing multiple bruises. He threatened that a restraining order would not stop him from hurting her if she tried to get one. Petitioner is afraid for her safety.”
The order was granted and renewed once, until it was dismissed on June 17, 1994.
McDow says the violent incidents as described did not happen, although he also doesn’t remember the specifics of what did happen, given the intervening years.
“We were starting a business together. We were spending all day together and then all night together. It was stressful,” McDow said. He said the orders of protection were issued as a matter of course by the court. “How can one person with no witnesses refute something like that?”
In 1995, the couple had a daughter, Katie, and things seemed to back on track, until, once again, they weren’t. On Oct. 11, 2005, Wester filed for divorce a second time — and this time, after a very protracted battle, the divorce was finalized in Jan. 2007. But again, in repeated filings, Wester cites McDow’s alleged violence and temper.
- A Jan. 13 2006, motion alleges, “On Friday, January 13, 2006, the parties were together in the library of the parties’ home. … The parties were trying to resolve a computer problem. Husband became angry at wife who was seated next to him. He violently struck her in the breast with his right elbow, causing severe pain to her, and devastating emotional distress. … Husband is extremely volatile. … Wife fears for her emotional and physical safety.”
- A Feb. 23 motion requested McDow remove his guns from the residence, alleging, “Husband has several guns. Husband has a severe anger problem and Wife is fearful of him. She does not believe it is safe for there to be guns in the residence under the present circumstances.”
- A June 29 filing regarding visitation issues alleges, “If the child has resisted being with the Father, it is because he treats her in the same belligerent, hostile manner as he does Wife when he is angry. The Father is unable to control his mood swings and erupts into rage when he is not in full control of every situation.”
- A Sept. 14 filing alleges that McDow repeatedly accused Wester of having an affair with two different individuals and states, “On April 25, 2006 this occurred again in the presence of employees and respondent grabbed petitioner in her office leaving red marks on her arm.”
- There are also multiple filings alleging McDow of calling Wester “a bitch” or otherwise insulting her in the presence of their daughter.
McDow, again, denies all of these allegations.
“Divorce is an adversarial process — a lot of claims are exaggerated, you know,” McDow said. He called Wester’s lawyer “a liar,” and said, “It’s a serious problem that attorneys are allowed to defame people in court.”
One of Wester’s two lawyers was John Hollins, who later settled a defamation suit brought by country music star Sara Evans’ ex-husband over claims he made during the divorce proceedings to People magazine.
McDow also said the allegations in the divorce proceedings that he had flown to France to have two surgeries to lengthen his legs to make himself two to four inches taller at a cost of 60,000 Euros ($78,600 at the 2005 exchange rate) were inaccurate.
“I had surgery to correct some cartilage problems that enabled me to not walk correctly,” McDow said.
One affidavit in the filings, from a doctor procured by McDow, mentions Dr. Gavriil Ilizarov, who created an apparatus that is both used for necessary (but rare) orthopedic procedures as well as the somewhat controversial elective leg-lengthening technique.
During the course of the divorce proceedings, as battles over the the $20 million estate (which included the business, the couple’s $1.4 million Nashville home, several million-dollar Florida condos — including one at the Trump Tower in Miami — and up to $4 million in gold and silver bullion and rare coins) grew heated, both McDow and Wester were found in contempt of court. Both were sentenced to 10 days in jail, although each only served 12 hours.
Yet McDow says he now is “on good terms” with Wester and that she signed his petition to run for Senate.
“I wish you would ask about the real issues in the race — that’s what’s important,” McDow told the Scene. “That’s the real story — our party is split down the middle.”
It is perhaps a demonstration of this schism that McDow himself has previously donated to Dickerson’s campaign, giving $125 in 2010 and $500 just last December. When asked why he donated so close to deciding himself to run, McDow said that after his donation he became uncomfortable with Dickerson’s support for the Legislature to vote on medical marijuana and Dickerson’s lack of support for a ban on Syrian refugees in the state.
Dickerson’s campaign declined comment about the allegations.
Erin Coleman, the Democrat running for the seat, said stories like this show that “every part of America” is affected by domestic abuse.
“I don’t know the details of this, so I don’t want to comment to the situation specifically, because I hadn’t heard about this before today,” Coleman said. “But [domestic violence] is something I as a state senator would work to combat and improve how our state handles these issues.”
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Wester set up with a settlement from her divorce, the Mary Wester Foundation, has been giving between $11,000 and $16,000 per year to the YWCA since 2008. The YWCA works with victims of domestic violence.
