Browns File for Appeal of Custody Ruling

SANTA ANA — Attorneys for the grandparents of O.J. Simpson’s two youngest children on Wednesday accused the former football great of making it increasingly difficult for them to see the youngsters and announced their plans to continue fighting for custody.

Louis and Juditha Brown filed a formal notice of their intent to appeal a judge’s decision to award full custody of the children to Simpson and visitation rights to the Browns. An attorney on Wednesday said the grandparents are also considering a return to court because Simpson is preventing them from seeing the children.

“He has made visitation very difficult for the Browns,” said attorney Natasha Roit, who added that she hopes the problem can be resolved privately. Roit declined to elaborate on the situation.

But Bernard A. Leckie, Simpson’s attorney in the custody case, disputed that claim.

“It’s not true,” said Leckie. “All they have to do is ask for visitation. I haven’t heard that it’s a problem.”

The Browns want to have the children returned to their Dana Point home. Their attorney, Eric Lagin, said he believes that the safety of the children is jeopardized by living with their father.

“What this judge did was wrong,” Lagin said, explaining why the grandparents are pursuing an appeal. “The safety of the kids and the best interests of the kids demand that we keep pushing.”

But Simpson’s attorney said the children are doing “very well” and called the latest legal flap “a waste of time.”

“It keeps the status of the children up in the air and it is not in their best interests,” he said.

It could be up to a year before the case is heard by the 4th District Court of Appeal here. It will be several months before the appeal is filed with the court, Lagin said.

Meanwhile, Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, remain at their father’s home in Brentwood.

The children had been living with their grandparents while Simpson successfully fought charges he murdered his ex-wife and the mother of his youngest children, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman. After his acquittal in 1995, Simpson sued for and won custody.

In her December ruling, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock also wrote the children should have regular contact with the grandparents.

The appeal, Lagin said, will likely be based on three major allegations: that Wieben Stock did not consider information about the murders; that she did not allow testimony about alleged domestic violence against Simpson’s first wife; and that Marjorie Fuller, the court-appointed attorney for the children, was biased.

Fuller could not be reached for comment Wednesday.