Report: Mel Gibson to seek full custody of Lucia
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Mel Gibson on Monday will petition a court for full custody of Lucia, his child with Oksana Grigorieva, TMZ reports.
Citing court documents, the website says Gibson’s lawyers will ask that Grigorieva get only monitored visitation -- with no overnights. The actor, who has been ordered to pay child support of $20,000 a month in addition to paying rent for mother and child, currently has three days of visitation a week, with one overnight.
The crux of the argument, according to the documents, is that Oksana’s public trash-talking about her ex-boyfriend -- Team Mel maintains that many of her allegations are false -- isn’t in the best interest of the child.
Grigorieva appeared Wednesday night on ‘Larry King Live.’ The interview was taped over the weekend after the judge said last week that Grigorieva wasn’t prohibited from speaking publicly, but might want to consider the consequences.
The Russian singer told King that she made the infamous tapes, using an iPhone app, because ‘I wanted my mother to be able to prove that if I’m dead that this is who did it.’ She said she was using her opportunity on King’s show to stand up for victims of domestic violence.
‘The obvious thing that people have asked about this is, why didn’t you hang up?’ asked King, who played bleeped-out portions of the Feb. 18 tapes.
‘I did. I kept hanging [up] but he kept calling back. And I knew the sound, you probably can hear it’s coming like from a barrel. I knew he was on his old phone in Malibu. He’s not on the road with the iPhone calling from his iPhone. And he’s not coming to kill me,’ she said. ‘So, I knew he was still there, so I kept picking up. But eventually, I got so exhausted. That’s why I’m not replaying. And obviously, I didn’t plan for this to be on public television.’ Gibson said in a sworn declaration that he slapped her the night of Jan. 6, to shock her out of hysteria while she allegedly was swinging Lucia around during an argument. On the King show, Grigorieva restated her allegations that her ex punched her twice in the face with a closed fist.
‘This is a batterer who has been controlling me for quite a while,’ she said. ‘I stopped seeing my friends. I financially became completely dependent on him. He’s losing control. I left him and this is the anger and outrage and I think he needs to take responsibility for the mental state he is and the disease, domestic violence is illness. And he has to be responsible for that.’
Gibson had not responded to the show’s requests for comment, King said. Sheriff’s investigators have turned over their domestic-violence findings to prosecutors, but an extortion investigation against Grigorieva is ongoing. Robyn Gibson, whose divorce from Mel is not yet final, said in a sworn declaration that he’d never threatened to harm her or their seven kids during their 28 years together.
Mel and Oksana broke up in April.
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-- Christie D’Zurilla
Photo: Mel Gibson on Jan. 16, 2010. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times