FARGO -- Regan Williams' lawyers are asking a Cass County judge to throw out an order giving temporary custody of her niece - the orphaned 3-year-old daughter of slain Fargo dentist Philip Gattuso - to Gattuso's brother.
Her attorneys argue that the Nov. 17 order was one-sided - ex parte, in legal speak - by failing to give Williams a proper chance to weigh in on the matter. They've asked Cass County District Court Judge Wade Webb to vacate the order.
"It was preceded by multiple no-notice, no-hearing, no-transcript, judge-to-judge jurisdictional conversations, an unconstitutional and unjustified ex parte guardianship order, and a sham arraignment in juvenile court," the brief supporting the motion states of the order granted by Cass County District Court Judge Steven McCullough.
After Philip Gattuso was beaten to death with a hammer on Oct. 26 - an alleged murder Williams' father has been charged with arranging - Williams was given temporary custody of Gattuso's daughter in an Oklahoma court order.
Police say custody of the dentist's daughter was the alleged motive of his former father-in-law, Gene Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick is accused of hiring his former handyman, Michael Nakvinda, to kill Gattuso. Both have been charged in the killing and are being held in the Cass County Jail.
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Williams had custody of 3-year-old Kennedy Gattuso until North Dakota courts stepped in to take over the custody case, immediately shifting temporary guardianship to the family of Roy Gattuso, Philip's brother.
Attorneys for Williams - Gary Debele of Minneapolis and Michael Gjesdahl of Fargo - also argue that the custody dispute should be moved to the court system in Oklahoma, where Williams and Gattuso's late wife are from.
In the motion filed Dec. 23, the attorneys concede that the "home state" for
3-year-old Kennedy Gattuso - whose mother, Valerie, died in March after a long struggle with complications from a heart surgery - is North Dakota because the toddler lived there for the six months prior to her father's death.
But that only gives North Dakota initial priority as the proper jurisdiction in a custody case, they argue.
Moving the case to Oklahoma would be more convenient for both the Williams family and the family of Roy Gattuso, who lives in a New Orleans suburb in Louisiana. They also note that neither potential permanent guardian lives in North Dakota or has any plan to raise the child here.
The attorney for Roy Gattuso, DeAnn Pladson of Fargo, has until 24 hours before the hearing on the motion to file a response. That hearing, initially set for next Monday, was moved to Jan. 22 after Pladson asked Webb for additional time.
A four-day custody trial to determine who will have the permanent guardianship of Kennedy is scheduled to start April 27.
