UPDATE: Brad Pitt has been granted joint custody of his children with Angelina Jolie following a lengthy court battle.
Per Us Weekly, after months of back-and-forth in court with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, a judge ruled in favor of Brad Pitt to share joint custody of their six children.
“[Jolie’s] testimony lacked credibility in many important areas, and the existing custody order between the parties must be modified, per Mr. Pitt’s request, in the best interests of the children,” court documents obtained by Us stated.
Angelina Jolie has claimed she’s being “denied a fair” trial amid her custody battle with Brad Pitt.
The actress filed for divorce from Brad in September 2016, just two years after they finally tied the knot after 10 years together.
After a lengthy court battle, a judge granted them both legal single status on April 12, 2019 while finalizing their divorce.
The Hollywood stars are parents to six kids – Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.
The actress has filed new court papers, blasting Judge John Ouderkirk for allegedly ignoring her evidence in the custody battle over her six children with her ex-husband.
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In the documents submitted on Monday, May 24 in California's Second District Court of Appeal, the 45-year-old claims, “Judge Ouderkirk denied Ms. Jolie a fair trial, improperly excluding her evidence relevant to the children's health, safety, and welfare, evidence critical to making her case.”
She also says the judge “has failed to adequately consider” a section of the California courts code, which says it is detrimental to the best interest of the child if custody is awarded to a person with a history of domestic violence.
The new filing does not detail the domestic violence she refers to, but Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016 after a verbal dispute in a private plane involving their eldest child, then-15-year-old Maddox.
Following an investigation, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services ruled that the Moneyball star did not physically abuse any of his children.
Jolie also criticizes the judge's decision not to let her children testify. She says the judge has “refused to hear the minor teenagers' input as to their experiences, needs, or wishes as to their custody fate,” citing a California code that says a child 14 or over should be allowed to testify if they want to.
Jolie has sought to disqualify Ouderkirk from her custody battle with Pitt, reasoning that the judge has an improper business relationship with one of Pitt's attorneys. She says in the latest filing that if the tentative custody decision is made final by Ouderkirk, she will appeal it.
Pitt's attorneys, however, beg to differ. In response to Jolie's filing, the 57-year-old's legal team says, “Ouderkirk has conducted an extensive proceeding over the past six months in a thorough, fair manner and reached a tentative ruling and order after hearing from experts and percipient witnesses.”
They further take issue with Jolie's testimony, which they say “lacked credibility in many important areas, and the existing custody order between the parties must be modified, per Mr. Pitt's request, in the best interests of the children.”
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