his personal assistant at Spaulding Enterprises. Diane, a sometime vindictive but shrewd businesswoman, harbored fantasies of being the next Mrs. Spaulding, but would continually be let down when Alan married two other women. Also brought to town for a while was Alan's personal attorney, the smooth talking Dean Blackford. Dean met the widowed Dr. Sara McIntyre, whom he romanced and married in Hawaii. Sara had attempted to romance Justin, but Justin was in over his head dealing with trashy journalist Brandy Shelloe, who had broken up his and Jackie's marriage eight years earlier. Mike Bauer tried to warn Sara that Dean was a shady character, and indeed Dean was. He tried to win sole custody of Phillip for Alan by paying off a man named Ramon de Vilar to falsely testify that Elizabeth had had an affair with him. This ploy did work for a while, and Alan was awarded sole custody after he married Jackie. Later it would be learned that Dean would have kept the de Vilar affidavits, that de Vilar had lied in court, and Dean would start being threatened. De Vilar threatened Dean that he'd admit that he had perjured himself, and Alan told Dean to deal with it as Dean saw fit. Dean then ended up shooting and killing de Vilar. Sara started having suspicions about her third husband, and Dean tried to do away with her on their honeymoon in January 1979, but Mike showed up and Dean ended falling to his death from a cliff. Elizabeth fell in love with Mike Bauer. However, she ultimately could not marry him because, thanks to Alan, Phillip blamed Mike for his parents' breakup and hated him as a result. In September 1975 a new nurse, Rita Stapleton, arrived in Springfield and began working at Cedars. Beautiful, but a bit of a social climber, Rita came from a modest upbringing in West Virginia, but was motivated to make a better life for herself. She briefly dated hotshot surgeon Tim Ryan, but didn't pursue a relationship with him, when she realized how much her friend and coworker, Cedars employee and unwed mother Pam Chandler loved him (and she even went so far as to push Tim in Pam's direction). Soon after breaking things off with Tim, Rita caught the eye of the recently separated Dr. Ed Bauer. On the rebound from neurotic Holly Norris, and depressed over his