The Distillers’ Brody Dalle has been convicted of one count of criminal contempt in her custody dispute with ex-husband Josh Homme, as Rolling Stone reports. The misdemeanor conviction, which could carry jail time, came after Dalle was found guilty for withholding her 5-year-old son from Homme’s court-mandated custodial time in September. She pleaded not guilty last month.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff dismissed an adjacent contempt charge involving Dalle’s 10-year-old son, ruling that the older child had decided against visiting his father of his own volition. Judge Riff also dismissed charges that Dalle had prevented Homme from speaking with his sons on video calls. Dalle testified that she had personally unblocked Homme’s number from her oldest son’s phone.
Following Dalle’s contempt charge, Judge Riff ordered at-home monitoring during custodial visits. Dalle will be sentenced on November 30.
“I know how disappointed you are, and I know you think this system has let you down,” Judge Riff said to Homme, who expressed disappointment in court that he hasn’t had custody time with his oldest son since August. Judge Riff continued:
“Everybody here has gotten a serious tutorial in criminal law. Criminal law is not the answer to a family’s problems. What you really need to be focusing on is how in this current fractured environment you’ll be able to co-parent. And you’re going to need help. You’re going to need third parties involved. If you can get there, you’re going to heal this family. But doing it through contempt proceedings and DV [domestic violence restraining order] proceedings probably is not the answer.”
Dalle testified that she attempted to coordinate her sons’ visits with Homme amid the children’s alleged refusal. In a closing argument, Dalle’s lawyer accused Homme of “emotional mind games” with the children, of punching Dalle’s car, calling her names, and allegedly threatening the life of Dalle’s boyfriend Gunner Foxx.
Amid the ongoing custody dispute, it was revealed in court on November 9 that Dalle did not sign the original restraining orders for her sons and was not present when they were filed. Instead, Dalle said, Foxx took her 15-year-old daughter to file the restraining orders on behalf of all three children.
On November 12, Homme filed a request for a civil restraining order against Foxx on behalf of himself and his two sons, court documents viewed by Pitchfork confirm. The filed request claims that Foxx was responsible for filing forged restraining orders on behalf of his sons. Foxx is accused in the filing of stalking, surveillance, assaultive conduct, and extreme restrictive gatekeeping, “most probably at the direction of [Homme’s] ex-wife.”
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