THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230079
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 47 lines
Sharon Bottoms, angry that a judge has barred her lesbian lover from contact with her son, will not rule out the possibility of reviving her legal battle to win sole custody of the boy.
A court ruling on Wednesday expanded Bottoms' visitation rights with Tyler Doustou, 5, but barred her from seeing the boy with her partner, April Wade.
Both women said Thursday at a news conference they were angry about Henrico County Circuit Judge Buford Parsons' ruling. When asked if she would return to court and seek custody of Tyler, Bottoms said, ``Possibly. I can't predict the future.''
Bottoms dropped her three-year legal battle with her mother, Kay Bottoms, last week and asked instead for more lenient visitation rules.
Richard R. Ryder, Kay Bottoms' attorney, said he doubted Sharon Bottoms would resume the custody fight.
``They had sense enough to give up this time,'' Ryder said.
Ryder said Kay Bottoms may seek child support from her daughter. He said he did not know if she would seek support from the boy's father, who is divorced from Sharon Bottoms. The father has not been involved in Tyler's upbringing and was not involved in the custody case.
Parsons ruled Wednesday that Tyler may visit his mother in her apartment as long as Wade is not there. He also barred Wade from speaking to the boy by phone.
Sharon Bottoms also will be able to see Tyler every other weekend, for extended Christmas and Thanksgiving visits, and for a week in the summer. She had been restricted to seeing the boy Mondays and Tuesdays away from her apartment.
Ryder said his client will follow the new visitation orders.
Sharon Bottoms lost custody of Tyler in 1993 when a judge said she was an unfit mother because she and Wade engaged in oral sex, a felony in Virginia.
A Virginia appeals court overturned the decision, but the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated it last year. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Sharon Bottoms, left, with her partner, April Wade, had dropped her
legal battle against her mother over her son, Tyler, and asked
instead for more lenient visitation rules.
KEYWORDS: CUSTODY LESBIAN by CNB