90 DAY FIANCÉ Geoffrey Paschel’s latest appeal denied today EXCLUSIVE

90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days and Worst Ex Ever star Geoffrey Paschel has encountered yet another legal setback hoping to overturn his 18-year prison sentence for kidnapping and brutally beating his fiancée Kristen Wilson in 2019.

RECAP OF GEOFFREY PASCHEL’S APPEALS

Geoffrey’s initial appeal was denied by the Tennessee Court of Appeals in September, 2023, Geoffrey applied to appeal the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court in November of 2023. That application was denied.

A defendant is allowed to file multiple appeals if the merits of the appeal differ. Geoffrey filed a Petition for Post-Conviction Relief (appeal) to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in March of 2025 alleging that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel at trial.

It’s ironic that Geoffrey’s new petition was based on not having effective counsel because the petition that was filed was not “verified” with Geoffrey’s signature. The filing was also missing attorney affidavits. That was a major problem because Geoffrey had a limited amount of time in which he could file and the incomplete petition was filed one day before the deadline.

Five days later, the State of Tennessee filed a motion to dismiss Geoffrey’s petition “because it was not verified or signed by Paschel, the attorney affidavits were not attached, and the statute of limitations had now run, precluding the filing of a new petition.” The next day, Geoffrey’s attorney filed the signed petition with the required affidavits. This was nearly a week after the deadline to file.

The court ruled in favor of the State and dismissed Geoffrey’s petition. Geoffrey then appealed that decision. He argued that the late verification was not reason enough to dismiss the appeal entirely.

The Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed with Geoffrey. In a ruling filed earlier today, the court denied Geoffrey’s appeal. “This court is of the opinion that no error exists in the judgment of the post-conviction court,” the ruling reads.

More from the ruling:

The Petitioner, Geoffrey Paschel, appeals from the Knox County Criminal Court’s dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief from his convictions for aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault, and interference with an emergency call and his eighteen-year sentence. On appeal, he contends that the post-conviction court erred by dismissing the petition that was unverified at the time of filing and, alternatively, that he is entitled to the petition’s reinstatement on the basis of due process and public policy. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

GEOFFREY PASCHEL SUES HIS ATTORNEY?

Missing the deadline to file the verified petition was a HUGE mistake on the part of Geoffrey’s legal team, and Geoffrey put the blame squarely on his lead attorney, Richard Lee Gaines.

Geoffrey filed a complaint against his attorney with the Consumer Assistance Program in February, 2026 and a civil suit in Knox County Circuit Court — according to court filings by Richard Gaines. Geoffrey alleges, among other things, malpractice, deceit, and fraud.

In court documents, Geoffrey provides transcripts of conversations between Richard Gaines and himself, as well as conversations between Richard Gaines and Varya and Geoffrey’s mother. In the conversations, Geoffrey expressed his concerns over the filing deadline, but he was assured everything was fine.

As stated above, the State of Tennessee filed to dismiss Geoffrey’s appeal five days after it was filed due to the lack of verification. However, Geoffrey’s attorney never told him (or Varya or Geoffrey’s mother) this fact.

In a motion to remove himself as Geoffrey’s counsel, Richard Gaines admits he kept Geoffrey in the dark about the State’s motion and the eventual dismissal of the appeal:

In no way did I foresee that this petition would be dismissed purely on a technical issue. I truly thought the next order we would receive would be for a status conference on the colorable claims, per the statute, and a hearing date would be set. To avoid unnecessary worry for Mr. Paschel, I did not relay specific information about the state’s motion.

I did not immediately receive notification of the trial court’s order dismissing the petition. The trial court emailed its order to Ms. Bowling, but not to me. Ms. Bowling had received the trial court’s ruling, but I had not, and I was out of the office the week of April 7, 2025. Regrettably, I had talked to Mr. Paschel and his family after April 3 and relayed to them that I thought we would get a court order on a colorable claim soon. I had no idea at the time I talked to them that the trial court ruled that the petition should be dismissed.

I am not sure the exact date that I learned the trial court dismissed the petition, but I must have known on or before April 9, 2025, because we filed the notice of appeal on that day. We did attempt to get a visit to the prison in the week of April 14, but we could not. The slight delay in notifying him was primarily based on a desire to give him the news in person, come up with a plan, and not discuss it in a “committee” of text messages. We could not, however, get an earlier appointment from Trousdale, so on April 17, 2025, I called Mr. Paschel’s mother and informed her of the bad news. We also sent Mr. Paschel a letter to that effect that same day. Ex. 16, Letter to Mr. Paschel, April 17, 2025.

Geoffrey’s take on what happened:

After securing the $50,000 fee to serve as lead counsel, Mr. Gaines committed catastrophic malpractice. He failed to investigate the claims, ignored much of Appellant’s factual contributions, and waited until the absolute final day of the statutory deadline to finish drafting and file the post-conviction petition. Because of his severe, unexplained delay, he filed the petition without allowing Appellant to review it, and critically, he filed it entirely unverified, resulting in the immediate dismissal of the petition without substantive review.

Geoffrey reveals that he paid Richard Gaines an additional $25,000 for an “investigation expense fund.” Regardless of your opinion of Geoffrey, $75,000 is certainly a lot of money to pay only to have the entire appeal dismissed because the petition wasn’t filed on time.

It’s unclear if Geoffrey has plans to file a third appeal.

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com