Browns To Appeal Custody Grandparents Say Simpson Has Made Visitation Difficult

Accusing O.J. Simpson of making it increasingly difficult to see their grandchildren, the maternal grandparents of Simpson’s two youngest children have filed notice of their intent to appeal a judge’s decision to award custody of the youngsters to the former football great.

Louis and Juditha Brown filed a formal notice Tuesday in Santa Ana Superior Court saying they will fight a judge’s decision awarding Simpson full custody and allowing the Browns visitation rights. An attorney Wednesday said the Browns are also alleging Simpson is preventing them from seeing Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8.

“He has made visitation very difficult for the Browns,” said attorney Natasha Roit, who added she hopes the problem can be resolved privately. Roit declined to elaborate.

But Bernard Leckie, Simpson’s attorney in the custody case, disputed that claim.

“It’s not true,” said Leckie. “All they have to do is ask for visitation. I haven’t heard that it’s a problem.”

The Browns want to have the children returned to their Dana Point home in Orange County. Another attorney for the Browns, Eric Lagin, said he believes the safety of the children is jeopardized by living with their father.

“What this judge did was wrong,” Lagin said, explaining why the grandparents are pursuing an appeal. “The safety of the kids and the best interests of the kids demand that we keep pushing.”

But Simpson’s attorney said the children are doing “very well” and expressed his regret over the latest legal flap.

“I think it’s a waste of time,” Leckie said. “It’s unfortunate … It keeps the status of the children up in the air and it is not in their best interests.”

It could be up to a year before the case is heard by the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana. It will be several months before the appeal is written and filed with the court, Lagin said.

Meanwhile, the youngsters remain at their father’s home in Brentwood on the west side of Los Angeles.

The children had been living with their grandparents while Simpson successfully fought charges he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, the mother of his youngest children, and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman. After his acquittal in 1995, Simpson sued for custody of his children and won.

In her December ruling, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock also wrote the children should have regular contact with their grandparents.

The appeal, Lagin said, likely will be based on three major allegations: that Wieben Stock did not consider information about the slayings; that she did not allow testimony during the custody hearing about alleged domestic violence against Simpson’s first wife, Marguerite Simpson Thomas; and that Marjorie Fuller, the court-appointed attorney for the children, was biased.

Fuller could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In January, Wieben Stock denied a request by the grandparents to have the children returned to them while they appeal her ruling. The judge wrote in her opinion that she was concerned “that continued residence in the Brown household was detrimental to the children.”

The judge cited “a highly emotionalized atmosphere of ill feeling toward the father and unabated and unrestrained public expression of ill feeling toward the father.”

That opinion came only days before a civil jury in Los Angeles found Simpson liable in the slayings.

Wieben Stock’s rulings, which were backed by many in the legal community, have led to a recall movement against her.