Court Decision Won’t End Custody Battle

A mother who has been forced by court order to live in Ventura the past two years has moved a step closer to returning home.

The state Supreme Court refused this week to overturn a July decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which had ruled that Pamela Besser Theroux and her son, Joshua Fingert, could not be forced to live near the boy’s father against their will.

But the battle over the blond 8-year-old boy is by no means over.

His father, Michael Fingert of Moorpark, has petitioned the Superior Court to award him sole custody of Joshua.

Theroux, however, wants the existing custody order to remain in effect, which mandates that Joshua live with her 63% of the time and with his father 37% of the time. Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden is scheduled to hear arguments on Fingert’s petition on Oct. 25.

Fingert and his attorney, Richard Taylor, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

By rejecting Fingert’s petition, the Supreme Court let the 2nd District Court of Appeal have the last word on the 1988 order that forced Theroux to move from the Bay Area to Ventura, said her attorney, Jon Davidson of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Superior Court order had been issued to ease the anxiety that Joshua reportedly suffered from being shuttled every few weeks by airplane between two parents and two schools.

The appeals court, however, ruled on July 13 that the Superior Court abused its discretion with the 1988 order, which required Theroux to live near Fingert or lose custody of her son.

Court of Appeal Justice Richard W. Abbe wrote that the ruling by Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath violated Theroux’s right to travel, which is guaranteed by the California and U.S. constitutions.

Theroux said her sole wish is to move back to the Bay Area with Joshua and her new husband, Steven Theroux, if she and her ex-husband can work out a good visitation schedule. She said she would prefer to let Joshua spend summers, holidays and weekends with his father and the rest of the time with her.

But the custody fight has grown increasingly bitter with each petition filed by Theroux and Fingert.

Theroux has said publicly she fears that Joshua’s anxiety over his parents’ dispute has hurt his education.

In an Aug. 29 petition asking for sole custody, Fingert wrote: “What bothers me most . . . is that Joshua hears his mother making these negative and derogatory statements about him not only on the radio but on TV and in the press. She repeatedly says how terrible he is doing in all areas of his life when he thinks he’s doing fine. I fear for his self-image and self-esteem. I believe she should be stopped from publicly bad-mouthing her own son to promote her self-serving war.”

In a reply Sept. 19, Theroux said: “I have never publicly or privately ‘bad-mouthed’ my son, whom I love and I think the world of. . . . Depriving me of custody of my son, for whom I have been primary custodian since his birth . . . could not possibly be in his best interests.”

Hadden has appointed a lawyer to represent Joshua, and a psychologist to examine him.