Arizona publisher who used his own newspapers to share claims his estranged wife had poisoned him drops case against her

An Arizona newspaper publisher who repeatedly claimed that his ex-wife poisoned him has dropped the lawsuits against her ahead of a trial that was scheduled to start this week.

Joseph Soldwedel, 69, sued Felice Aspiranti, 66, amid a bitter divorce after police found no evidence of his claim that she tried to kill him with the heavy metal thallium, which was once used in rat poisoning. 

Soldwedel sent hair and nail clippings to a lab in 2016 and reportedly discovered he had six to 15 times the normal amount in his body.   

A different hair sample was also tested by police in 2017, where they found traces of methamphetamine, but not thallium, according to NBC. 

Thallium, however, can be found in illegal drugs, and police suggested that might be where the traces came from, they told NBC.  

Soldwedel sought $18million from her in the lawsuit that alleged the poisoning and $2million in his defamation case against Aspiranti, her family, and a friend.

Prosecutors in Yavapai County declined to file criminal charges. 

Joseph Soldwedel, 69, has dropped the alleged poisoning case again ex-wife Felice Aspiranti, 66, ahead of the trial that was supposed to begin this week  

 He claimed Aspiranti of poisoning him with thallium, but police did find traces of it in the hair sample they tested in 2017. They did find traces of methamphetamine

'It's been a burden to them and a theater of this rich man trying to sue them all,' said Aspiranti. 'It was just hard on all of us. We're all glad it's gone and done.'

Soldwedel also accused Aspiranti of defamation, and she countersued.

The cases were consolidated but largely languished in court since they were filed in 2018, partly because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As Thursday's trial date neared, Soldwedel agreed to drop his claims. Aspiranti also dropped hers. A judge signed off on the deal last month, saying the lawsuits cannot be refiled and called off the trial.

Soldwedel attributed his decision partly to his age and wanting to focus more on his health, family and job.

'I convinced myself a few years ago that such a lawsuit, I could achieve closure,' the 69-year-old to AP. 'But I realized probably within the last year, there's no such thing no matter how it turned out.'

Soldwedel published two ads in his newspaper the Prescott Daily Courier accusing Aspiranti of poisoning him. This ad was published in June after Felice had been cleared by police 

Soldwedel runs Western News and Info Inc., which owns or partially owns a dozen newspapers, including the Daily Courier in Prescott, the Daily Miner in Kingman, the Navajo-Hopi Observer and Today's News-Herald in Lake Havasu City.

Soldwedel publicized his claims by using his newspapers to disparage Aspiranti, directing news coverage of his allegations that Aspiranti slipped poison into his food, affecting his health.

Soldwedel also published an advertisement in the Prescott newspaper with her photo detailing his claims and most recently wrote and self-published a book that repeated the claims. Soldwedel said he distributed more than 30,000 copies of the first part of the book for free to newspaper subscribers.

Aspiranti said she received a copy of the book by mail and gave it to her attorney, John Mull. She claimed she didn't ask for the book. She said in an interview that Soldwedel has 'a hell of an imagination.'

Soldwedel and Aspiranti, who had worked at one of his newspapers the Western News, were married for seven years before she filed for divorce in April 2017.

The first ad Soldwedel published was published in the Prescott in December of 2017, but he did not name her 

He argued Aspiranti married him for his money in an attempt to annul their marriage and invalidate the prenuptial agreement that guaranteed Aspiranti would receive $900,000 if the couple divorced and $1 million if Soldwedel died. 

A court upheld them.

She called the poisoning claims ludicrous, and the couple's divorce was finalized last year.

Aspiranti believes the lawsuits were retaliation for her wanting to end the marriage and because she had reported to police that Soldwedel was harassing or stalking her. 

Soldwedel unsuccessfully sought to introduce his poisoning allegations into the divorce proceedings. 

Mull said he was confident enough that Soldwedel's poisoning claims wouldn't hold up in court because he didn't hire an expert on behalf of Aspiranti to rebut them, calling the case one of the most bizarre he's ever encountered.

'In my mind, she was completely vindicated,' he said. 'She voluntarily agreed to talk to police, have her computer searched, have her phone checked, and none of that supported any of his claims. His own evidence he was relying on was inaccurate as well. It didn't support his claims.'

Soldwedel's attorney, Jay Bloom, said the possibility that the case would have been heard by a judge or judicial panel first and not a jury, under an alternative dispute resolution program established for civil trials amid the pandemic, also factored into Soldwedel's decision to drop his claims.