A New York Judge on Tuesday ordered Kelly Rutherford to say goodbye to her children and forced her to return them to her ex-husband in Monaco. The "Gossip Girl" star spoke out about the "shocking" turn of events and released a statement regarding the courtroom drama.
"What the judge did yesterday was shocking, illegal and abusive to my children," she said in the statement, according to Us Weekly. "Without any legal authority, a judge from the lowest ranking court in the state court system violated the highest ranking deferral constitutional rights of my American citizen children."
Rutherford, 46, appeared yesterday at the New York Supreme Court after Judge Ellen Frances Gesmer signed a writ of habeas corpus filed by her ex-husband Daniel Giersch on Monday, according to People magazine. The court appearance followed Rutherford's refusal to fly her son Hermes, 8, and daughter Helena, 6, to Europe after they spent the summer with her in New York City.
"Judge Ellen Gesmer effectively arrested my children, claiming she had authority under habeas corpus to take them into custody because of a foreign country's court order," she wrote in the statement, according to ABC News. "Knowing she had no authority, Judge Gesmer seized my children and their U.S. passports, and forced them to leave the United States and reside in Monaco, a country where neither they nor I, nor even their father, has citizenship."
In the final portion of her statement Rutherford vowed that she would not give up the battle for her children. "I will continue to fight for my children, and one day I will land in the courtroom of a decent judge. My children ask me all the time if I am still fighting for them, and I always tell them the day will never come when I say 'no,'" the actress finished.
Rutherford and her ex-husband Giersch have been caught in a bitter custody battle over their two children since she filed for divorce in 2008.
