Recently in Child Visitation Category

According to the Los Angeles Times, Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, was seen last Wednesday attending a child custody hearing concerning their 9-month-old daughter. The hearing concerned whether the daughter's passport should be seized. Besides that basic information, the court proceedings were confidential.

As reported in an earlier post, Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives recently announced that they are wrapping up their initial investigation into Grigorieva's allegations that Gibson committed an act of domestic violence against her and endangered their child last January. Investigators will soon present their evidence to prosecutors, who will then decide whether to pursue charges.

A father from San Diego has been fighting a 3-year battle to regain custody of his son, who was taken to Mexico by his mother. Trevor Richardson and Mariana Saldivar were divorced when their son Andrew was a year old and were supposed to share equal child visitation and custody rights. In August 2007, however, Saldivar fled to her native Mexico, taking Andrew with her.

Since then, Richardson has seen his son twice for a total of five hours. Complicating the issue, his ex-wife told authorities upon her arrival in Mexico that Richardson had threatened to kill her. Since then, he has been cleared by U.S. authorities of domestic violence, but he has only been allowed court-supervised visits with his son in Mexico.

On Tuesday, an Orange County family court judge granted physical custody to Jesse James of his daughter, Sunny. Since he has physical custody, he also has permission from the court for parental relocation to Texas and permission to bring Sunny with him. The judge said that he based his decision on what would be in Sunny's best interest by considering the bond she has with her siblings that live with her father and the fact that she is currently doing well in her father's care.

Sunny's mom is James' ex-wife, ex-porn star Janine Lindemulder. Lindemulder has had drug problems and problems with the law and was recently released from a halfway house. The judge ruled that Lindemulder will have legal custody with child visitation rights, while James will have physical custody. Lindemulder will be able to see Sunny once a month in California and will share summer and holiday breaks with James. The judge ruled that Lindemulder was off drugs, but was still in a fragile state where she might make poor decisions.

The Orange County Register reports that a panel of appellate court judges ruled Tuesday that an Orange County woman can temporarily retain custody of her 2-year-old adoptive daughter, Vanessa. Stacey Doss of Rancho Santa Margarita began the process of adopting Vanessa soon after she was born in Ohio. The adoption process has not come to completion, however, because of paternity claims by Vanessa's biological father, Benjamin Mills, Jr. Both are now fighting for permanent custody of Vanessa, a contentious dispute that has gained national attention.  

When Doss began the adoption process, she was told by Vanessa's birth mother that she had become pregnant with Vanessa after a one-night stand. She had other children with Mills, but told Doss he was not the father of Vanessa. Later, genetic tests proved that Mills was the biological father. Vanessa's mother and Mills had a turbulent relationship, and Mills served 18 years in an Ohio prison for domestic violence. Mills has had his driver's license suspended for failure to pay child support.

A new tape obtained and made public by the website Radar Online purportedly features an argument that took place over the phone between Mel Gibson and his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva during which Gibson seems to admit to domestic violence. During the argument, Grigorieva asks Gibson what kind of man would hit the mother of his child in the face while she was holding their child, breaking her teeth. Gibson responds by yelling that she deserved it.

The former couple have an 8-month-old daughter. At the time of Grigorieva's taping of the arguments they were locked in a contentious child custody dispute over the infant. Gibson is currently under investigation for the domestic violence allegations by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's officials say that they will consider the tapes as potential evidence in their investigation. At the conclusion of their investigation, they will turn their findings over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, which will decide whether to pursue charges.

Actor Mel Gibson is under investigation by sheriff's officials for domestic violence. His ex-girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, has accused Gibson of attacking her last January 6. The couple has been involved in a contentious custody dispute over their 8-month-old daughter.

TMZ obtained audio tapes that had been secretly recorded by Oksana during a fight between the couple. Gibson can be heard on the tape screaming obscenities and racist and sexist slurs. The tapes were made during the break-up and custody battle and before the couple reached their custody agreement through a mediator in May.  

A recent article by the Associated Press brings to light the trouble some parents who use marijuana medically can have winning equal child visitation rights. Medical marijuana has been legal in California for over 10 years, but it remains a shady area of the law, and that includes how a parent's medical marijuana use plays into a judge's child custody decisions.

Medical marijuana laws protect people using marijuana from criminal charges, but courts may still view patients as less fit parents because of their drug use. Many parents with medical marijuana prescriptions are allowed only supervised visits with their children. Patients using the drug for medical reasons say that it does not make them less fit and that it shouldn't cause them to lose their visitation rights if there's no evidence of drug abuse. 

Actor Charlie Sheen's sentencing hearing for domestic violence has been delayed over disagreements concerning the terms of his plea deal. It seems the terms contained stricter rules than he had anticipated. Parts of the plea deal have been discussed in public and, reportedly, Sheen will serve 30 days in jail, but will be eligible for work release during the day. For his community service, he could be interning with Theater Aspen, a community theater in Colorado. The couple calls Southern California home, but Sheen will have to serve his sentence where he was arrested.

The domestic violence charges stem from a Christmas morning dispute between Sheen and his wife, Brooke Mueller, in Aspen. Sheen told police that the fight began when his wife became jealous over a song he shared with his daughter, whom he had fathered with a different woman. Sheen said Mueller threatened to divorce him and fight for custody rights of their twin one-year-old sons and he became angry.

A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the parents of Bruce Beresford-Redman will continue to have temporary guardianship of Bruce's two young children until a trial for permanent guardianship takes place at a later date. The children's mother and Bruce's wife, Monica, was found murdered in Cancun, Mexico on April 8 of this year. Monica's sister, Carla Burgos, has requested that permanent guardianship be transferred to her.

Bruce Beresford-Redman had been in Mexico at the request of the Mexican authorities investigating Monica's death until he returned to Los Angeles a little over a week ago. Since last Sunday, he has been again living with his children. Bruce returned to Los Angeles to attend to family and personal matters, he said through his attorney. He maintains his innocence in Monica's death.

The attorney of the children's paternal grandparents filed an ex-parte motion on Thursday to give parental responsibility and custody back to their son. They withdrew the motion after the judge extended the temporary guardianship. The judge also noted that the father's situation is still unstable and may change. The next hearing on the matter is set for June 17, at which point a trial date will be set.

The extended families of the Beresford-Redman children are going to court to determine permanent guardianship. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff granted temporary guardianship to the children's paternal grandparents while their father is detained in Mexico. A sister of Monica Beresford-Redman has challenged that arrangement and Judge Beckloff has set a court date for June 17 to determine permanent guardianship.

In April, Monica Beresford-Redman's body was found in a sewer in a resort in Cancun, Mexico. She had been staying at the resort while on vacation with her husband, TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman, and their two children. Bruce Beresford-Redman is a suspect in his wife's death and has been barred from leaving Mexico until the investigation into her murder is completed, though he has not yet been arrested or charged.