Your Legal Guide Through Life’s Twists And Turns

Dwyane Wade’s child custody drama with ex-wife resurfaces

You might not know it from his on-court play in games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals, but Dwyane Wade has been dealing with a huge off-court distraction involving his ex-wife this week.

Wade filed for divorce from Siovaughn Funches-Wade in 2010. Although the marriage was officially ended by a court decree in June of that year, the former spouses continued to fight over the issue of child custody for some time after that and have still not resolved all of the financial details of their divorce.

In any event, an Illinois family court judge awarded full custody of the couple’s two sons to the Miami Heat star and visitation to his ex-wife in March 2011. End of discussion? Not necessarily.

Last weekend, Wade’s sister called her brother’s ex-wife seeking to arrange a time to pick up the boys so they could fly to Miami to be with their father, as had been scheduled. After repeated attempts to contact Funches-Wade, the sister called local police. Officers went to the residence but Funches-Wade did not answer the door or speak with them until after her boys had been spotted playing in the backyard.

According to reports, Funches-Wade flailed her arms and resisted arrest when confronted by officers and then demanded to be taken to a hospital insisting that she had suffered a broken arm and complaining of an asthma attack. She has since been charged with two counts of attempted child abduction, interfering with child visitation and resisting arrest.

On Tuesday, Wade and his attorney responded to the weekend’s events by asking a judge to suspend Funches-Wade’s child visitation rights; a hearing on that request has been scheduled for next week.

Funches-Wade has denied that she had any plans to abduct the children or interfere with her ex-husband’s child custody rights, while her attorneys insists that she simply had her phone turned off and that the whole incident has been overblown.

Source: Reuters, “Dwyane Wade asks court to suspend ex-wife’s child visits,” Andrew Stern, June 19, 2012

Archives

FindLaw Network