VENTURA : Evaluations Ordered in Custody Case

There was another twist this week to the already convoluted child-custody case of a woman who was forced to move from the Bay Area to Ventura or lose custody of her son.

A court-appointed lawyer for 8-year-old Joshua Fingert obtained a judge’s order Wednesday for the boy’s parents to undergo psychiatric evaluations. Then Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden, who ordered the tests, put off Thursday’s custody hearing until January.

So three months after the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the boy and his mother were wrongly ordered to move to Ventura two years ago, the two still cannot leave.

Court records show that Pamela Besser Theroux and Michael Fingert already were evaluated by psychiatrists in 1983 and 1986 in the ongoing battle over their son.

But Lucia Tebbe, Joshua’s court-appointed attorney, said new evaluations are needed to give the judge a clear picture of the parents’ current state of mind.

“I don’t think it should be inferred from that request that anyone is implying that either parent has a psychiatric or psychological problem,” said Tebbe, appointed in early August by Hadden. “But the cast of characters has changed at this point. Let’s just say there’s a whole lot of water under the bridge. . . . “