Brothers Seek to ‘Divorce’ Parents Over Abuse

Alleging that they have been physically and emotionally abused all their lives, two Orange County brothers are attempting to “divorce” their parents in a court action that their attorney says is the first of its kind in California.

In a Superior Court lawsuit filed Thursday, the elder brother, who is 15, is seeking to end his relationship with his father and stepmother, claiming that they constantly beat and mistreated him.

Family Court Commissioner Richard G. Vogl ordered court officers to investigate the boy’s allegations so a decision on temporary custody can be made before a trial is held.

In a separate lawsuit filed a day earlier, the boy’s 11-year-old adopted brother made similar allegations of parental abuse, and requested separation from the parents.

The parents could not be reached for comment.

Similar lawsuits have been filed by children in other states.

“From what I know, this action is unprecedented (in California),” said Daniel Boehm, president of the family law section of the Orange County Bar Assn. “A parent has a constitutional right to parent his or her child and to sever it requires clear and convincing evidence.”

But attorney Richard C. Gilbert, who represents the brothers, said he plans to prove that “it’s a detriment to continue the parent-child relationship. There is clear and convincing evidence of abuse,” he said.

According to Gilbert, the brothers reported the alleged abuse to police. When social workers began to investigate, their father moved them to a trailer in San Bernardino County, outside the jurisdiction of child-abuse workers, Gilbert said. But the boys telephoned Gilbert from a post office near their new home.

Gilbert said the brothers allege that the stepmother once pointed a loaded gun at the older child’s head, that she tried to run over the younger with a car, that both parents used drugs, and that they frequently beat and abandoned them.