There’s a part of me that believes it’s ridiculous that H. Beatty Chadwick has spent 14 years as a guest of the Delaware County Prison on a civil contempt charge.

But there’s also a part of me that believes Chadwick should make himself comfortable, that he shouldn’t be going anywhere.

The newspaper this morning editorializes that it is time for Chadwick to be set free.

That matter is now in the hands of Judge Joseph Cronin. I’m glad I don’t have to make the ruling.

Chadwick sets what is believed to be a U.S. record every day he wakes up behind bars at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. No one has ever spent more time in jail on a civil contempt charge.

It boils down to this. Chadwick, embroiled in a bitter divorce battle with his ex-wife, continues to resist efforts to determine if he in fact has as much as $8 million in assets, as his ex claims. Chadwick says it’s just not so, that the money was wiped out in bad investments.

But he continues to resist signing off on anything that would allow power of attorney to be shifted in the search for the funds to give access to his tax returns dating back to 1994.

That’s not even what’s being debated now. The issue raised by Chadwick’s attorney, Mike Malloy, now centers on the issue of contempt and whether the jailing of the lawyer has now gone beyond coercive to punitive.

Malloy argues that’s not what contempt sanctions are for. He also points out there are very few crimes Chadwick could have committed in which he would have spent as much time in jail as he has on this contempt rap.

Think about it. Chadwick never been convicted of any crime, yet he’s spent 14 years of his life in prison. The flip side, one his opponents are eager to point out, is that Chadwick holds the keys to his jail cell. But he stubbornly refuses to offer the information he needs to in order to win his freedom.

And so there he sits.

Let him go? Keep him in jail? I can see both sides.

Good luck, Judge Cronin.