San Diego

Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell has removed herself from presiding in the custody battle over Brian Batey, the 16-year-old long at the center of a tug-of-war between his fundamentalist Christian mother and his late homosexual father.

Lawyers for the mother, Betty Lou Batey of San Diego, had asked McConnell to disqualify herself from the case last month, charging that the judge’s feminist views biased her against Mrs. Batey.

McConnell rejected the lawyers’ formal disqualification motion in a closed hearing two weeks ago, according to Carol Sobel, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Craig Corbett, longtime companion of Brian’s father, Frank Batey, who died of AIDS in June.

But the judge--for reasons that are part of a sealed, confidential record in juvenile court--nonetheless transferred the case to Superior Court Judge Sheridan Reed, according to Sobel.

Reed is scheduled to conduct a closed hearing Friday on Brian’s status. Corbett wants to make permanent the temporary guardianship of the teen-ager he was granted after Frank Batey’s death. But Betty Batey wants the guardianship revoked so she can assume custody of her son.

Sobel said Wednesday that Batey’s lawyers have sought to remove the proceedings from juvenile court and transfer them to either probate court or a regular Superior Court department, where they probably would be open to the public.

The lawyers, Cimron Campbell of Washington and E. James Jeffries of Poway, could not be reached for comment.