Manhattan chiropractor Dr. Charles V. Nicolai’s estranged wife killed herself and their 7-year-old son when she jumped from the 25th floor of a midtown hotel Friday morning.
Stephanie Adams, 47, a former Playboy Playmate, author, model, businesswoman and co-owner of their chiropractic clinic on Wall Street, and Nicolai were in the middle of an antagonistic divorce and custody battle over their son Vincent.
Adams leaped from the penthouse terrace of the Gotham Hotel located on East 46th Street at around 8:15 a.m. Friday. Police are still investigating.
Here’s what you need to know about Nicolai:
1.His Attorney Said Nicolai is ‘Devastated’
“Dr. Charles Nicolai is devastated. He lived for his son and he is now gone.” – Attorney for @stephanieadams ‘s estranged husband. He tells me they were just in court over custody for their son on Wednesday @NY1.
The New York Post reported Adams and Nicolai were in the middle of a “nasty custody battle” over Vincent and Adams was ordered to hand over her son’s passport to a judge.
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Reportedly Adams wanted to take her son to “Europe for the summer.” She and Nicolai were in court days ago when she asked a judge for permission. Nicolai objected to her request and the judge agreed and ordered she produce her son’s passport. The Post also reports that friends of Adams’ said while she was not depressed, she did need help with other emotional issues and was having money problems related to the divorce, the paper said.
2. The Couple’s Existing Custody & Visitation Situation Included Drop-Offs & Pick-Ups at a Police Precinct
NYPD First Precinct
It’s reported Adams was “so afraid of her estranged husband that their meetings are held at a police precinct…the couple met at the First Precinct in Tribeca for the ‘handovers.’”
Tragically and ironically, in a story about ‘soulmates’ and marriage, Adams said of Nicolai that her life changed “the moment your eyes locked.”
“I looked into Charles’ eyes and it was like a planetary, cosmic explosion which had us racing together in time…dating, marrying, making a family together, growing old together…” Five years later, the glorious future is still unfolding.”
3. The Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness Business Co-Owned by Adams May Have Been Financed by Her 2012 $1.2 Million Windfall. Official New York Records Tell the Story
Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness began life in 2008 as Wall Street Wellness & Physical Therapy LLC and was dissolved in 2012. But was re-birthed in 2012 as Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness as a sole proprietorship with two to 10 employees specializing in chiropractic care, massage therapy, and nutritional counseling. Nicolai was licensed as a chiropractor in New York in 2010 and his license expires in 2021.
In 2012, Adams was awarded $1.2 million by a jury in a case against the NYPD. The New York Post reported that it was her money, in part, that supported the new Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness business. In fact, it’s listed as a sole proprietorship under her ‘Illuminati’ company.
On her LinkedIn page she identifies herself as Stephanie Adams Nicolai. Adams says she is co-owner of the business and has been for more than eight years, according to her LinkedIn.
The Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness LinkedIn page says Dr. Charles V. Nicolai is a chiropractor serving the New York financial district.
Dr. Charles V. Nicolai, Adams’ former husband and father of the 7-year-old, Vincent, who Adams took with her when she jumped from the Penthouse on the 25th floor of the Gotham Hotel Friday morning.
Nicolai’s chiropractic clinic offers help with “pain relief after suffering an accident, experiencing an injury, or if you have a specific condition such as chronic back pain or a spinal condition; even if you just want to improve your overall health, our chiropractor can help you achieve your wellness goals,” it reads, describing the services as, “Unlike conventional medicine, which focuses on attempting to treat disease once it occurs, the chiropractic care offered at Wall Street Chiropractic and Wellness in New York emphasizes the importance of improving your health in an effort to reduce the risk of pain and illness in the first place.”
However, as a sole proprietorship, and with those records residing with the Clerk of New York County, it’s not clear what stake she had still had in the business. Some reports say everything was in his name.
4.Two Hours After Adams Killed Herself & Her Son, a Woman Who’d Sued Adams & Nicolai Dropped Her Lawsuit
According to court records, in 2013, Nicolai and Adams, then married, were sued by a massage therapist, Dilek Edwards. The 33-year-old yoga instructor claimed she was fired because Adams was jealous of her, claimed that she was threatened, and that Adams lied about alleged harassment when it was in fact the opposite.
Edwards said in her complaint that Nicolai cautioned that his wife “…might get jealous because (Edwards) was too cute …” Shortly after, a middle-of-the-night call that Edwards did not answer then a text came from Adams that read in part, “You are NOT welcome any longer at Wall Street Chiropractic, DO NOT ever step foot in there again, and stay the F–K away from my husband and family!!!!!!! And remember I warned you.”
Rattled, Edwards, who’d requested a jury trial in her lawsuit against the couple for sexual harassment, gender bias and unlawful termination, said that the next morning she got an email from Nicolai which read, “You are fired and no longer welcome in our office. If you call or try and come back we will call the police.”
Edwards wrote in her complaint that Adams told police that she received threatening phone calls from Edwards saying, ‘I’m going to come to the office in a threatening manner,’ and that Adams was so worried that she change the locks to her home in office. Edwards claims that was all a lie and what really happened was that Nicolai “changed the locks to his office because he was afraid” of Adams who had “come home that night before and yelled at him in a fit of jealous rage regarding her suspicions of Edwards. Nicolai, Edwards claims, “left his home that night and spent the remainder of the night and several nights there after sleeping at the office.”
The case has been going on for five years.
Lawsuit dropped
Friday, two hours after Adams committed suicide and, as a 7-year-old does not by law have the ability to consent, killed her son, Edwards dropped the case.
5. There’s Little Social Media Footprint Easily Located for Nicolai & Even Fewer Images of the Couple & Their Son. But Reviews For His Practice Are More Easily Located. And Full of Praise
Nicolai, son Vincent, and Adams
Nicolai has no locatable social media save for a Facebook page that’s essentially empty except for a profile picture which is similar to his LinkedIn profile image. In all of Adams’ social media and website there is nary an image of her estranged husband.
Nicolai’s Twitter page has a child-sized handful of followers and even fewer tweets.
But reviews of his practice as a chiropractor and for the business in general are easy to locate and chock full of accolades. On Yelp!, Wall Street Chiropractic & Wellness and Nicolai in general are mostly five-star. Indeed, of the 69 reviews, nearly all are five star reviews and most fairly recent.