Kelly Rutherford, left, daughter Helena, and son Hermes attend the 18th Annual Super Saturday fundraiser to benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at Nova's Ark Project in Water Mill on Saturday, July 25, 2015, in New York.
Scott Roth / AP
Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford’s child custody battle with her ex-husband has escalated into a very public fight that now involves international kidnapping allegations.
Rutherford's battle with ex-husband Daniel Giersch began after they divorced in 2008 after two years of marriage. Shortly thereafter, Giersch had problems with his visa and in 2012, a California judge ordered that the two children move back with him to Europe until his residency issue was resolved. Rutherford later objected in court papers, stating Giersch had made no attempts to resolve his visa issue and return with their children to the U.S.
In May, a California Judge granted Rutherford sole custody, but that ruling was later overturned when the court decided it did not have jurisdiction over the case because neither party was a state resident.
So when their two children, Hermes, 9, and Helena, 6, spent summer break in New York, Rutherford allegedly refused to send them back. Giersch's attorney, Fahi Takesh Hallin, called Rutherford’s decision to keep the children stateside "child abduction."
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Hallin said that since Rutherford is refusing to return the children, "this is unfortunately an abduction by retaining the children in the U.S. in violation of court orders."
Hallin added that his client would not be issuing any further statements regarding his ex-wife "so as [to] protect the children's privacy, as well as their relationship with their mother."
Rutherford has previously said that her children were supposed to return after a temporary stay in France and Monaco, but that more than two years "is not temporary.”
Rutherford has also cited the strain of flying back and forth to visit her children as the reason she had to file for personal bankruptcy in 2013.
Rutherford’s attorney, Wendy Murphy, responded to the child abduction and kidnapping allegations with a statement of their own, accusing Giersch of doing nothing to address the visa issue while attempting to secure sole custody of the children in Europe.
"It is curious that the children's father would make cruel threats and derogatory remarks rather than refusing to respond to the very simple statement we recently released last week explaining why the children are entitled to reside in their own country," Wendy said in the statement.
She added: "Mr. Giersch purports to be interested in co-parenting, but his actions belie a different agenda. ... Mr. Giersch can come to America on his German passport and visit the children here, just as Kelly has traveled back and forth to Europe on her U.S. passport to visit the children there for the past three years."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1DE0hQz
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