Judge Disregards Guardian Ad Litem Recommendation, Biased Toward Ludacris?
Does the Fulton County family court system have a serious bias when it comes to celebrity dads? The reason we ask is that we saw Usher score a major victory by receiving primary physical custody of his sons following a major court battle last year and as BOSSIP reported this week Ludacris (Chris Bridges) won a similar victory in his custody battle for his 13-month-old daughter Cai Bella.
Following his legal victory Luda released the following statement:
“After review of all the evidence, the testimony of the witnesses, the report of the guardian ad litem, and the claims made throughout this entire case, I am gratified that the judge found me to be the most fit and proper parent to have primary physical custody of our beautiful daughter”.
What’s interesting is that Luda makes reference to the report of the guardian ad litem in his statement. It’s worth noting that Judge Dorothy Downs disregarded a key recommendation from the guardian ad litem, Kayla Lind. In her report, Lind recommends that Cai Bella remain with her mother until she is at least five-years-old. While Judge Downs acknowledged that Fuller and Bridges were both physically and mentally stable, she awarded primary physical custody to Bridges.
Is it just us, or do you find it strange that a judge would strip a mother of her 13-month-old? Don’t you think it might be traumatic for a baby to be taken away from her mother? Especially when a guardian ad litem recommends otherwise. Do you think celebrity bias might be at play?
There seems to be a strong argument for it. Or perhaps Fuller was simply outmanned. After all. Ludacris had six attorneys in the courtroom versus Fuller’s one. One of Luda’s lawyers, John Mayoue was part of the team that helped score Usher custody of his sons. Did Luda have an inside edge thanks to Mayoue? If you recall there were previous questions about Usher’s attorneys having a potentially conflicting relationship with the judge in that case.
Also worth noting, the guardian ad litem in Usher’s case was Dan Bloom. Bloom has previously partnered with the guardian ad litem on this case, Kayla Lind.
As we noted yesterday, Fuller’s history of neglect with her first daughter came into play in the judge’s decision. Yet somehow over the course of a 10-month investigation Lind never interviewed Fuller’s daughter (who is now 20-years-old) to find out how she felt about her mother’s parenting ability. She was never asked how she felt about the period of a 3-4 years when Fuller left her in her grandparents care. Does that seem right?
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