ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
O.J. Simpson was awarded full custody of his two young children Friday by a judge who ruled their grandparents had failed to show Simpson ``would be clearly detrimental to their well-being.''
``I know 100 percent that Nicole wanted the children to be with me,'' Simpson said at his home after the judge ruled that he posed no risk to his children.
Earlier, he issued a statement on behalf of his family saying, ``We are all so very grateful to have the children home again where they want to be.''
After a long and contentious custody battle between Simpson and his former in-laws, Louis and Juditha Brown, the judge found in Simpson's favor after a custody trial in Orange County, where the Browns live.
``We love Sydney and Justin and pray for their safety and well-being as they return to their father,'' the Brown family said in a statement released through their attorney, Natasha Roit.
It wasn't immediately clear when the children would be delivered to Simpson. Roit said the order provided no timetable and the Browns were strongly considering an appeal.
Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, went to stay with their grandparents when Simpson was arrested in 1994 and charged with murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
The Browns agreed at the time that Simpson could file to regain guardianship whenever he was cleared and released from jail. But after a Los Angeles jury acquitted Simpson in October 1995, the Browns decided to try to keep the children. In addition to suing Simpson in civil court, claiming he was responsible for Nicole Simpson's death, they contested custody in Orange County.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock ruled that the Browns had failed to provide ``clear and convincing evidence'' that custody by Simpson ``would be clearly detrimental to their well-being.''
``The children share a relationship with their father that appears to be strong, positive and healthy, with powerful psychological bonding,'' Wieben Stock said in her ruling. ``All experts who had the benefit of analyzing the children with all of their significant adults, came to the same conclusion on this point.''
Wieben Stock granted the grandparents visitation rights with the children and found that their relationship was stable and healthy and that regular visits would be in the children's best interests.
Roit blasted the judge's order, saying she ignored clear evidence of domestic violence by Simpson and signs Simpson could become violent again. Roit also said the judge rejected the Brown family's suggestion that she consider some evidence of the killings. ``It is illogical to us that she can decide a case on domestic violence ... without considering the evidence of murder,'' Roit said.
Wieben Stock said in her ruling she had considered evidence of Simpson's domestic violence but found that ``A review of Simpson's history with the children does not yield a picture of a man who has in the past, or is likely in the future to lose control of himself in such a manner as to emotionally or physically harm his two young children,'' Wieben Stock said in her ruling.
"A review of Simpson's history with the children does not yield a picture of a man who has in the past, or is likely in the future to lose control of himself in such a manner as to emotionally or physically harm his two youn children," Wieben Stock said in her ruling.
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