A private family matter has become very public in the Taylor Lake Village community.
A dispute between a husband and his doctor wife has left him outside, sleeping and living in the yard of his million dollar mansion. According to the police, it’s been going on for the last six months and Sharafat Khan has been forced to live outdoors on and off during that time.
Neighbors are very worried because he is elderly, in poor health and in a fragile state.
“He’s wearing the same clothing, it’s dirty,” neighbor Debbie Scoggins said. “He has no bathroom facilities, no shoes.”
“The weather is starting to get colder,” Laurel Stout, who lives across the street, said. “He’s very frail, he can’t even walk. I’m afraid he is going to die out here in his yard.”
Khan told KPRC 2 his wife kicked him out of the house several months ago, took away his keys and had the locks changed. He said he doesn’t have access to their money and is basically homeless even though he owns half of their mansion.
Khan doesn’t feel like he should have to leave because the home and property are just as much his. He said he wants to be allowed inside and he’s hoping he can pressure her into changing her mind.
“She doesn’t want me to have any sort of comfort,” he said.
Night after night he sleeps on the front porch wrapped in a sheet. During the day he tries to find shade under the trees. On Monday he was eating saltine crackers and drinking a warm bottle of water.
Neighbors said if they take him blankets and pillows, the wife takes them away.
There are signs posted all over the home instructing the neighbors not to help him or feed him.
Khan said the dispute is over his relationship with other family members. She wanted him to cut ties but he refused.
Police officers who are familiar with the situation said they have been called out to the home 20 to 30 times in the last six months. There is nothing legally they can do because Khan has every right to be there and they can’t force his wife to let him in.
“Our hands are tied,” one officer said.
Someone close to the situation said Khan’s wife claims she can’t file for divorce because she and her husband practice Islam and they strictly follow Sharia law. Khan told KPRC this has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with money.
“She doesn’t want to hand over half her fortune,” he said.
He can’t file for divorce because he claims he can’t afford to.
Can you imagine the national outrage if their roles were reversed? Imagine a man not letting his elderly wife in their million dollar home, and she had to take refuge in their yard for 6 months. Pres Obama would be there in a half hour walking the poor lady in personally. What you’re seeing is how it is guys – ESPECIALLY in Texas. No one is getting involved because it’s a man forced out. If the same man were to miss 1 child support payment he could expect to face jail time. Here, on national TV, we see a woman break the law and illegally force an eviction on her husband over a private estate that is mutually owned in a community property state.
