Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Kay Bottoms also has asked a Henrico County judge to cut off visitation between 4-year-old Tyler Doustou and his mother, Sharon Bottoms.
In a petition filed Monday in Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, Kay Bottoms said her daughter has violated a court order barring Doustou from being in the presence of April Wade, Sharon Bottoms' live-in girlfriend.
Sharon Bottoms and her attorneys deny that Wade has seen Doustou. ``We've followed the order to the letter,'' said Stephen B. Pershing, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
Sharon Bottoms, 25, of Richmond said her mother has refused to allow her to see her son for court-ordered visitation for the past nine weeks.
The petition from Kay Bottoms, 44, who lives with Doustou in Spotsylvania County, is the latest development in a 21/2-year court fight that began in Henrico's juvenile court and was appealed up to the Virginia Supreme Court.
In April, the state's highest court voted 4-3 to reverse a Court of Appeals decision that ordered custody of Doustou returned to his mother. The case eventually was referred back to Judge William G. Boice, the juvenile court judge who first awarded custody to the boy's grandmother in March 1993.
Sharon Bottoms, who works 15 to 25 hours per week as a department store saleswoman, asked Boice last week to return Doustou to her. She said her living conditions have improved since 1993, while her mother's have deteriorated.
Boice will set a court date today to hear the new issues.
Kay Bottoms' attorney, Richard R. Ryder, said Monday that Kay Bottoms' living conditions are fine and that she is ``steadily employed'' as a nanny.
Boice will set a court date today to hear the new issues.
by CNB