June 27, 2013 by Robert Franklin, Esq.
It looks like our old pal Kelly Rutherford’s ship has hit the financial rocks. Read about it here (omg Yahoo, 6/23/13). The former star of the television series “Gossip Girl” has filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of over $2 million and assets of just under $24,000. Her bankruptcy filing revealed she’s spent some $1.5 million in her custody case against Daniel Giersch.
The two were divorced in 2009 after two years of marriage. They have two children, Hermes, 5 and Helena who’s 3. Both children live with Giersch in Monaco. The family court ordered the children to reside there after Giersch’s U.S. visa was revoked.
His visa was revoked because of allegations that he deals in illegal drugs and arms, although just who leveled the charges isn’t clear. At least one publication has said that Rutherford herself did so in a bid to gain an advantage in the custody case, but that’s the only news outlet to make the claim.
Whether or not Rutherford, or someone in her camp, made the accusation against Giersch, Rutherford did enough parental alienation to anger the judge, Teresa Beaudet, in her case. The court made it clear that it was Rutherford’s persistent efforts to deny a relationship with their father to Hermes and Helena that forced her to transfer custody to Giersch.
Because he can’t travel to the U.S. to see them, it’s been Rutherford who’s done the intercontinental child visitation, apparently without interference from Giersch. Per court order, Giersch pays for Rutherford’s travel and accommodations while she’s seeing the children.
Meanwhile, having had her efforts at parental alienation stymied by an intelligent judge, Rutherford’s taken her case to the “Jury of Oprah,” i.e. talk shows and gossip columns. There she tearfully tells the part of her tragic story that makes her look like the victim of a callous judicial system, while scrupulously omitting the harsh criticism the judge directed her way.
Now, bankrupt or not, she’s still at it.
“You shouldn’t be able to go to court and be litigated against in that way over your children,” she told Us [Weekly magazine] last month of why she wants to get involved. “There needs to be some reform, that’s all. They just need to change a few laws and get things straight again and on the right track.”
That’s just so… so Kelly! I suppose she’s been doing the talk show circuit so long she doesn’t realize there are people reading and listening who actually know something about her and her behavior in the custody case.
“Be litigated against in that way over your children?” Really? Let’s see. She’s the one who filed for divorce and she’s the one who did everything she could to deprive the kids of their dad. Judge Beudet said as much in open court. And she may have been the one that resorted to lying to the State Department about Giersch’s business dealings in order to get him out of the country. As Rutherford sees it, that’s all perfectly fine. But when Dad fights back, when Giersch calls the court’s attention to her abusive behavior, well, that’s cause for reforming family law. I tell you, it’s a necessary part of the victim narrative that the teller believes it herself. She needs to; no one else does.
Meanwhile, Judge Beaudet knows the score and seems to be perfectly content with custody as it is. The rest of us, I suppose, have to continue to listen to Kelly Rutherford whine, whimper and snarl about a situation for which she has no one to blame but herself.
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