Actress Kelly Rutherford can’t yet bring children back to US
May 29, 2015, 1:43 PM
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2015 file photo, Kelly Rutherford arrives at The Weinstein Company and Netflix Golden Globes afterparty at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. A presiding judge in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 28, 2015, halted an order granting Rutherford temporary custody of her children, so she could return them to the U.S. from Monaco. The order was halted after lawyers for Rutherford's ex-husband, Daniel Giersch, showed that a judge in Monaco has an open custody case over the former couple's two children, ages 8 and 5. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A court order that granted actress Kelly Rutherford temporary custody of her children to allow her to bring them back to Los Angeles from Monaco was halted Thursday.
Judge Maren E. Nelson, who presides over family law courts in Los Angeles, halted a ruling by another judge who expressed concerns that Rutherford’s former husband violated terms of a 2013 custody order that allowed the children to live abroad.
Rutherford, who starred in “Melrose Place” and “Gossip Girl,” has accused ex-husband Daniel Giersch of preventing her from seeing their children, which he denies. A summary of a hearing where Rutherford got custody last week didn’t specify how Giersch may have violated the 2013 order.
His lawyer, Fahi Takesh Hallin, filed documents showing that a Monaco court now has jurisdiction over the children and claimed that Rutherford “made fraudulent statements, and lied and made misrepresentations by omission” to gain temporary custody.
A call to Rutherford’s attorney, David J. Glass, was not immediately returned Friday.
Nelson’s ruling prevents Rutherford from taking custody of her son and daughter until after judges in Monaco and Los Angeles confer about the case. That conversation is scheduled to take place June 11.
The way the case proceeds will be governed by rules that take effect when parents involved in a custody dispute live in different states or countries, said Steven Mindel, a Los Angeles divorce attorney who is not affiliated with the case.
Conferences between judges in two countries on custody issues are rare but occur once or twice a year, Mindel said. He said the California court may relinquish jurisdiction over the case since Rutherford has moved to New York and Giersch lives in Monaco.
Giersch and Rutherford married in 2006 and filed for divorce in Los Angeles two years later. They were granted a divorce in July 2010 and continued to fight over custody until the order allowed Giersch to keep the children abroad.
The pair has an 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter together.
Rutherford also has accused her ex-husband of trying to have a Monaco court change their citizenship. Giersch’s filing states that the Monaco court does not have the authority to do that, and no request to alter the children’s dual U.S.-German citizenship has been made.
Giersch was born in Germany.
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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .
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