Lawyer/Real Housewife's Husband Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison

Will you be tuning in to watch more of her dirty laundry get aired on national TV?

Back in 2010, we told our readers about Phaedra Parks, one of the new stars of the Real Housewives of Atlanta. The buzz about Parks was huge, in part due to the fact that she had a successful professional career as an attorney before the show aired. Parks, a “Super Lawyer” in the field of entertainment law, previously described herself as “fabulous, fierce, and beautiful” — but these days, the UGA Law grad may not be feeling so hot.

It seems that her husband, Apollo Nida, is once again in some serious trouble with the law. What happened this time, and how is this going to impact the reality TV show’s upcoming season?

This is not Nida’s first brush with the law. Here’s what we wrote about this fetching felon in 2010:

Phaedra’s husband, Apollo Nida, was convicted under Georgia’s RICO statute and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. After serving approximately five years in the slammer, Apollo was granted parole on May 27, 2009. Within six months of his release, Apollo and Phaedra were married and expecting a baby.

Phaedra claims to have met her husband in 1995 before he started his crime spree, but we much prefer the shotgun wedding scenario. Of her husband, Phaedra says that “he signed a pre-nup, so I know he doesn’t want my money, he wants me.” Yes, he wants you — and some free legal advice.

Let’s fast forward to 2014. In January, Nida was arrested on bank fraud and identity theft charges. He created a fake debt-recovery firm to access databases with his victims’ personal information, opened fraudulent bank accounts in their names, and deposited stolen checks into those accounts. Bad boy.

Phaedra Parks’s husband pleaded guilty to those charges in May 2014, citing his desire to live large:

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[Apollo Nida] said [his wife] was making far more money than he was and that he felt pressure to keep up. (He cited a $600,000 contract for her but didn’t say how long that was supposed to last.) Without easy legitimate ways to make quick money, he opted for this illegal scheme instead. But he claimed to her he was running a legitimate debt recovery firm and kept her firmly in the dark.

He said he even had a nervous breakdown at one point over the pressures to “sustain a lifestyle” befitting of a reality show star. And once he started the scheme, he found it difficult to stop. “I got sucked in and engulfed and lost sight of things,” he said.

This is why we can’t have nice things like house husbands — they’ll get jealous and run amok.

Yesterday afternoon, Apollo Nida was sentenced to eight years in prison, and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution. Nida originally faced up to 30 years behind bars, but because he cooperated with authorities (read: he snitched on his “right-hand bitch” and others), he was shown leniency by a judge.

As for the upcoming Season 7 of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, we imagine that Nida’s prison sentence will play a major role in Phaedra Parks’s on-air time. According to a source at Hollywood Life, Parks “knows just how important it is for her children, and young black boys in general, to grow up with a father,” and is worried that her sons will grow up without Apollo Nida’s presence during their formative years.

We can’t help thinking that if Phaedra Parks had gone into Biglaw, perhaps she wouldn’t be facing these problems. Alas, she didn’t want to “stifle the essence of who Phaedra is,” and now her marriage is in deep doo-doo. Will you be tuning in to watch more of her dirty laundry get aired on national TV?

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Apollo Nida, Phaedra Parks’ husband, charged with fraud, identity theft [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ husband pleads guilty to fraud [Page Six / New York Post]
Apollo Nida, ‘RHOA’ star Phaedra Parks’ hubby, gets 8-year sentence [Los Angeles Times]
Apollo Nida Prison Sentence — ‘Real Housewives’ Gets Short Sentence For SNITCHING [TMZ]
‘Real Housewives Of Atlanta’ husband Apollo Nida gets prison for fraud [CNN]
Phaedra Parks Worried Sons Will Grow Up Without Jailed Dad Apollo Nida [Hollywood Life]
The Deciders [Super Lawyers]

Earlier: Another Real ‘House’wife – Welcome Phaedra Parks to the Neighborhood