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Playboy Ma Ko'd in Court By Dareh Gregorian A state appeals court has shot down an ex-Playboy model mom's bid to hold a court-appointed psychiatrist accountable for her losing custody of her twin daughters. Bridget Marks had filed a malpractice suit against Dr. Stephen Billick, charging the shoddy and biased work he did as a court-appointed "neutral" resulted in her losing custody of her girls for 10 months.In its ruling yesterday, the state Appellate Division agreed with a lower-court judge that Marks' suit should be thrown out because Billick was protected by "judicial immunity." Marks' suit said a Family
Court judge had assigned Billick to make recommendations for the
girls' visitation with their dad, casino king John Aylsworth, but
the shrink overstepped his bounds by recommending the dad get
custody. Model in Tug-o'-love Sues Shrink By Dareh Gregorian Former model Bridget Marks has filed suit against the man she holds responsible for her losing custody of her kids 覧 a court-appointed psychiatrist. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Marks, 39, charges it was Dr. Stephen Billick's biased, negligent and unprofessional work that forced her to lose custody of her twin daughters for 10 months. "These two little girls suffered immensely because of this. It's time the people who made them suffer be held accountable," Marks' lawyer, Tom Shanahan, said of the suit, believed to be the first of its kind in New York. It seeks unspecified money damages for causing Marks and her daughters "permanent physical and emotional trauma, great pain, suffering and mental anguish." Billick didn't return a call for comment. The suit says it was his report that led Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg to strip Marks of custody of her girls Amber and Scarlett. The handover to their father, casino king John Aylsworth, a year ago yesterday, degenerated into a circus as Marks turned the hysterical girls over in front of TV and news cameras. A state appeals court gave custody back to Marks earlier this year after finding in part that Goldberg had relied too heavily on Billick's recommendations. Tycoon & Model End Tug-o'-Love By Dareh Gregorian Bridget Marks' war with the father of her twin daughters ended in a surprise cease-fire yesterday, when a Manhattan judge set up a visitation schedule for the clashing couple for years to come. "In essence, this case is over," Marks' lawyer, Tom Shanahan, said. His former-model client said, "It's been a long hard road, but I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel." Marks and her lawyers went into the hearing before Judge Patricia Henry ready to do battle with casino mogul John Aylsworth over visitation and other issues concerning their 5-year-old twins, Amber and Scarlett. Marks had complained that the visitation Aylsworth had been demanding since losing custody of the girls would have been disruptive to the twins' lives and their relationships with their mom. Aylsworth contended that he was just trying to maximize his time with his girls, who've lived most of their lives with Marks. Henry nipped both arguments in the bud in an order that seemed to satisfy both sides. The mother and father have already agreed on child support.
By Helen Peterson Likely state attorney general candidate Mark Green showed up in court yesterday to provide moral support to the mom in a high-profile custody case. Ex-model Bridget Marks, 39, who has been battling casino mogul John Aylsworth over their 5- year-old twin girls, sat with Green during breaks at Manhattan Family Court. She said she has known Green, a former city public advocate and mayoral candidate, for years. Casino King: Deal My Kids Back by Jennifer Fermino
A lawyer for the onetime Playboy Playmate said yesterday that her ex-lover, casino king John Aylsworth, has petitioned the state's appellate court to reverse its unanimous ruling giving Marks custody of their twins. "We will oppose their application," said Michael Joseph, the attorney. Meanwhile, Marks, 39, filed
a request for child support yesterday at Manhattan Family Court,
charging Marks denied the charges but a Manhattan judge believed them. The judge then stripped her of custody and gave it to Aylsworth in May 2004. The state's Appellate Division reversed that decision on March 31 and returned the kids to Marks. Lawyers for Aylsworth didn't return calls seeking comment yesterday
By Brad Hamilton
But Aylsworth is a man with a past when it comes to business, too. His company, President
Casinos Inc., has been forced to sell most of its assets after a
Bankruptcy Court examiner found he likely engaged in a "breach of
fiduciary duty" with a suspect land deal that funneled
JOHN AYLSWORTH
$40.5
million to the company's chairman, John New York City, where he's been working behind the scenes to help pave the way for a new operation here, sources said. As The Post reported last week, President and two other firms are negotiating for licenses to reopen the riverboats. Aylsworth has a powerful political ally in Karl Andren, a President officer who owns the Circle Line and World Yacht, Inc., which runs dinner cruises around Manhattan. Circle Line gave more than $62,000 in political donations since 2000, including $8,000 last year to state Sen. Martin Golden, election records show. Andren is also chairman of the executive committee of NYC & Co., the city's tourism promoter Dad's Diss in Custody War By Dareh Gregorian
The dad, casino king John Aylsworth, showed up with his lawyer more than an hour late for a hearing on his request for visitation with his 5-year-olds. Aylsworth, 54, had had sole custody of the kids until two weeks ago, when an appeals court returned the girls to Marks, who'd raised them since they were born. Yesterday's hearing was the
first time the clashing
LONG WAIT: Bridget Marks arrives at
couple had been
in the same room since the ruling Aylsworth's lawyer, Patricia Grant, blamed their delay on "miscommunication" about the time the hearing was supposed to start. Despite the bad start, the two sides did manage to strike a deal on temporary visitation, said Marks' lawyer, Michael Joseph. There is still plenty of bad blood in the couple's now-infamous custody fight, however. When Joseph complained to Judge Patricia Field that Aylsworth had fired the girls' therapist and was refusing to pay any more of the doctor's bills, Grant said Marks should just pay up herself. "She indicated she had access to $40 million and wasn't worried about money," Grant said, referring to a TV interview where the former Playboy model said her sister had just come into a fortune. Grant also said she's planning on battling Marks' custody award, and would appeal to the state highest court, the Court of Appeals.
'Ecstatic' Over Twin Win By Dareh Gregorian
"I'm ecstatic. I'm so happy. I'm so happy to have the girls home safe and sound," Marks told The Post yesterday in her first interview since regaining custody of her twin daughters. The model was reunited with her girls Tuesday afternoon, 10 months after a Manhattan Family Court judge stripped her of custody and ordered them to live with their father, casino king John Aylsworth. Marks said the day that happened, June 1, 2004, "was the worst day of my life." "Besides the day my angels
were born, [Tuesday] was the most wonderful day of my life," she
said with a smile. "They knew that they were coming home to live with mommy. This has always been their home, their only home. From the time they were born, they were raised in this very building," Marks said. She said Amber and Scarlett's joy should have been obvious to anyone who saw pictures of the beaming kids walking home with Marks in yesterday's Post. "The pictures said it all. Of course, I'll probably be accused of coaxing them and brainwashing them into their smiles," she said. The quip was a reference to her ugly custody fight with Aylsworth, a married man she'd had an affair with. He sued Marks for custody of the girls after they turned 3, and later accused her of "brainwashing" them against him. The dispute got even uglier when Marks said the girls told her he'd touched them inappropriately. A court expert later determined the claims were made up and the girls had been coached into making the statements, charges Marks denies. Judge Arlene Goldberg sided with the expert and ordered Marks to give up custody. The state Appellate Division overturned that decision last week, finding that, overall, Marks was "a good mother" and it was in the girls' best interests to stay with her. "My faith in the system has been restored," Marks said, thanking her "godsend" of a lawyer, Tom Shanahan, who she said, along with financial investigator Anthony DeRosa, "worked day and night on my case." Mommy Cheeriest By Brad Hamilton and Dareh
Gregorian The beaming model was reunited with her twin daughters yesterday afternoon just days after an appeals court reversed the controversial ruling stripping her of custody of the 5-year-olds. "Everybody's really excited," Marks' mother, Molly Bennett Aitkens, said after she and her daughter picked up little Amber and Scarlett at their prestigious Upper East Side private school. Marks, 39, didn't speak to
reporters camped JOY:
Bridget Marks takes her daughters
outside her East 72nd Street
apartment as The scene was in stark contrast to the one that unfolded outside of Marks' apartment last June, when the former Playboy model was forced to surrender custody of her girls to their father, casino king John Aylsworth. The handover quickly deteriorated into a sad and ugly public spectacle, with Marks and her daughters screaming and crying as Aylsworth put the girls into his car. Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg awarded custody of the twins to Aylsworth, who impregnated Marks while cheating on his wife, after finding the mom had made up charges that he'd acted inappropriately with the kids. In a decision released last Thursday, the state Appellate Division agreed what Marks did was "abhorrent," but said there was no reason to remove the girls from her custody. The judges said that overall, Marks was a "good mother," and the decision to remove the girls from the only home they'd ever known was more of a punishment to the mom. The two sides agreed to make the handover yesterday, but sources close to the case said that agreement didn't come easily. Aylsworth, who has homes around the country, balked at the idea of handing the children over before getting an assurance that he could visit them whenever he was in town, for as long as he wanted to, the sources said. Marks' side refused the demand and Aylsworth's side eventually relented, paving the way for yesterday's happy reunion. Marks' lawyer, Tom Shanahan, said, "We still don't have an amicable agreement on visitation, but we hope to have that done this week so he can continue to spend time with the children." Aylsworth's lawyer, Patricia Grant, didn't return a call for comment. In a radio interview Sunday night, however, she blasted the Appellate Division decision and Marks. She told the syndicated radio show "His Side with Glenn Sacks" that Marks was found to be "an unfit mother" who had abused her kids "emotionally and physically." She added that "if this decision is not reversed, which we hope it will be, it opens the floodgate, it really invites parents of both sexes . . . to make false sexual-abuse allegations." If the two sides can't work
out a visitation agreement, the appeals court ruling said they
should go back to court to have one worked out for them. Twice as Nice! Victorious Mom's Twins Home to Stay By Nicole Bode
Ruling Favors Ex-model in Custody Fight The New York Times win 5-year-old girls who were the subjects of a bitter custody battle between their parents - John Aylsworth, a casino executive, and Bridget Marks, a former Playboy model and actress who lives in Manhattan - are to be returned to their mother's custody, a state appellate court ruled yesterday. A panel of judges from the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court overturned a decision last May by Judge Arlene Goldberg of Manhattan Family Court placing the girls in the custody of Mr. Aylsworth after the judge found that Ms. Marks had tried to alienate him from the girls by coaching them to say that he had abused them. Judge Goldberg determined that the allegations were false. In their decision, the appellate judges deplored the false allegations, but said it appeared that they had not had a lasting effect on the girls' relationships with their father. The judges also noted that Mr. Aylsworth travels often, and that the girls would be left in the care of his wife, who is their stepmother, or paid caregivers. They said the girls should be placed with their mother, because they were "entitled to be raised by a parent." (To read the Opinion of the Appellate Court - First Dep't. Click here.)
Tug-o'-love Twist By Dareh Gregorian An "overwhelmed" Bridget Marks won the fight of her life yesterday when an appeals court gave her back custody of her two little girls. "This is a wonderful, wonderful day," an ecstatic Marks told The Post shortly after learning the state Appellate Division had restored custody of her twin 5-year-olds, Amber and Scarlett. "My prayers have been answered." Her lawyer, Tom Shanahan, said Marks and her girls "got their lives back today." The unanimous four-judge decision overturned a controversial ruling by Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg giving custody of the twins to their father, casino king John Aylsworth. The father had impregnated the former Playboy model while cheating on his wife, and then barely saw the children until they were 3. But he was awarded custody last year after Goldberg found Marks had been turning the kids against him. The ruling resulted in an ugly public spectacle last June, when a sobbing Marks handed the hysterical girls over to her ex-lover and his wife in a gut-wrenching scene that was caught on camera on East 72nd Street. Shanahan quickly filed an appeal and said Marks has been calling him in tears every Tuesday and Thursday 覧 the days the Appellate Division issues its decisions. The custody switch takes effect as soon as Marks, 39, returns from a ski trip she'd ironically taken to escape from the stress of losing the girls. "I could hardly breathe," she said of learning the good news. "I was just overwhelmed." Aylsworth's lawyer didn't return a call for comment. Goldberg's decision to strip Marks of custody was largely based on the report of a court- appointed evaluator, who found the mom had made up claims that Aylsworth had touched the children inappropriately. The Appellate Division judges agreed that Marks likely made up the allegations, which was "abhorrent." But the judges note that even the evaluator who recommended Marks lose custody conceded she was a "good mother." The judges also found Aylsworth's claim that he "will parent the children '24/7' rings hollow," because he's often away for work, and the bulk of the kids' time would be spent with Aylsworth's wife or paid caretakers. One appeals judge, David Saxe, said Goldberg's ruling was more of "a punishment to the mother for her misconduct than an appropriate custody award in the children's best interests." 2 Transferred Judges Breaking 'Family' Ties By Brad Hamilton Two headline-making Manhattan judges who oversaw controversial custody battles will no longer hear family cases because they have been transferred to other courts, The Post has learned. Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg, who ruled against ex-Playboy model Bridget Marks in a nasty custody fight pitting Marks against her married ex-boyfriend, and Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Judith Gische, a target of an FBI probe, both got new assignments Jan. 3. The embattled Gische is best known for handling Rudy Giuliani's high-profile split from Donna Hanover and the couple's ensuing custody fight in 2002. But she's also a focus of a federal investigation into allegations that she and other judges issued favorable rulings to pals and associates. Gische's transfer from the matrimonial division to civil court came as part of a normal rotation, said court spokesman David Book-staver. Goldberg, who was in Family Court for three years after coming over from the Supreme Court criminal division, had intended to transfer back to her old job a year ago but was asked to stay on for another 12 months, Bookstaver said. Judges Grill Love-twin Father's Lawyer By Bob Port State Appeals judges repeatedly fired tough questions yesterday at the lawyer for a married corporate executive who won custody of twin girls born during his affair with a former Playboy model. The hearing, oral arguments at the Appellate Division, gave new hope to Bridget Marks in her custody tug of war with John Aylsworth, president of President Casinos Inc. Marks is asking to reverse a May ruling by Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg giving Aylsworth custody of their identical twins, Amber and Scarlet, now 5. The appeals court granted Marks an expedited hearing, and judges asked detailed, probing questions. Justice Joseph Sullivan asked how it could be in the best interests of children to be taken from a "good enough" mother, who reared them alone for four years. "These children, in essence, are going to be raised by [Aylsworth's] wife," Sullivan said. "Why are they going to be better off?" In Family Court, Goldberg ruled Aylsworth should get the twins because Marks had engaged in parental alienation by making false sex abuse allegations against him. "We don't take away children from their biological mother in every case where they come up being short in their skills as a mother," Sullivan said. Justice David Saxe
suggested Marks' behavior, rather than being "delusional," as a
court-appointed psychiatrist had found, was "perfectly
understandable."
Bridget Marks became
pregnant with twin daughters as a result of an affair with a
married man. When he found out she was pregnant, she says he
wanted her to get an abortion, and once the
Playboy Mom's 9/11 Cash
Cow Bridget Marks, the former Playboy model who lost custody of her twin daughters earlier this year in a bitter court case, has written a post-9/11 potboiler called "September" so she can pay her lawyers. "I wrote the book for the girls, during the trial, and it incorporates many of the things I went through. These were my darkest moments," Marks told PAGE SIX. "My poor children. I just feel so sorry for them." The twins, Amber and Scarlett, celebrated their fifth birthday on Wednesday with their mother, who was allowed unsupervised visitation for the first time since their father, gambling tycoon John Aylsworth, got custody in June. The court found that Marks had coached the twins to lie that Aylsworth had molested them and that she was poisoning the youngsters' relationship with their father. He's a better custodian for our kids?" Marks fumed. "Judge Arlene D. Goldberg should be tarred and feathered. She's not fit to sit in traffic court." Marks will appear Wednesday on the "Dr. Phil" TV show to talk about both the novel and her personal ordeal. "It's a romantic thriller about a beautiful New York socialite who loses her son on 9/11," she said. "She risks everything and travels the world to find out if the greatest love of her life was one of the masterminds behind the attack. It's a love story that spans 30 years and three continents." Newscaster Linda Ellerbee liked the book so much she gave it a blurb: " 'September' is more than a novel. It's a first-rate lesson in the survival of love. No small thing, that." Marks is showing the same grit as her protagonist in pursuing her case in the Appellate Division. She also plans to sue several court-appointed "experts" 覧 psychiatrists, social workers and guardians 覧 over their testimony. "There is an epidemic in Family Court of good mothers losing custody of their children," Marks told us. "The court system is embarrassed. "I'm thinking of running for the City Council on the Upper East Side," she added. "If there's any way I can help other women and children, I will do it." Without Minders
Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg agreed. That clears the way for Bridget Marks to spend time alone with the 4-year-old girls for the first time in months. Marks raised the twins from birth but lost custody when Goldberg ruled the former Playboy model had falsely accused the father, John Aylsworth, 54, of sexually abusing the girls. "Today was a victory," said Marks, 38, who has lost round after round in the bitter custody fight. She paid $17,000 this summer to social workers to monitor some 500 hours of visits and numerous phone calls to the kids. "I won't give up until I have my girls back," she added. A psychiatrist seeing the twins has advised that "supervision is harmful for the children and disruptive," according to their court-appointed lawyer. On June 1, Marks handed over the identical twins to Aylsworth, head of President Casinos Inc., in a heart-wrenching spectacle recorded by news cameras. Goldberg ruled that Marks' "unbridled anger" toward the married tycoon was alienating the children from their dad. The judge made Aylsworth and his wife move to New York. Since then, Marks, who has tried acting and writing romance novels, has appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" and ABC's "Primetime Live" to air unrelenting criticism of New York's child custody system. Now, TV's Dr. Phil McGraw is on the case. Marks taped a segment with the CBS pop psychologist that is tentatively set to air Sept. 15. In court, various parties said McGraw has been telephoning them. "There's definitely going to be some followup," a show spokesman said yesterday. "One of the things that Dr. Phil prides himself on is extensive aftercare for folks who are on the show."
OK Twins' California Summer
Interview
With Bridget Marks on Larry King Aired
on CNN See Twins - for 5g! By Bob Port It looks like Manhattan mom Bridget Marks finally will get to see her little girls - but it's gonna cost her, big-time. The feisty mom, who lost custody of her 4-year-old twins to casino tycoon John Aylsworth, can have home visits, a judge said yesterday, but only if she shells out $5,000 a week for court-appointed social workers to watch her every move. Based on the number of planned visits, that could mean as much as $50,000 a year. Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg also told Marks that if she says anything bad about her daughters' father - an ex-lover she despises - the social worker has the authority to terminate the visit on the spot. "It's obviously punitive," said Marks, whose custody battle will be the subject of a report on ABC's "PrimeTime Thursday" program tonight. Goldberg approved the visitation rules, ending weeks of uncertainty for Marks, who lost her children on June 1 after the judge granted custody to Aylsworth. Yesterday, Goldberg also ordered Marks not to allow the news media access to her twins for the next year or reveal their "precise whereabouts." The judge said the children will be harmed by reporters interviewing them or photographers taking their picture. "I can't have that," she declared. "My job is to protect these children," Goldberg said. "That's what I intend to do." Goldberg awarded Aylsworth custody, ruling that the trauma of taking the girls from their life-long home with Marks was better than letting Marks further alienate the girls from their father. Marks, a former Playboy model, went public, lambasting the court, its overpriced forensic psychiatrist and what she views as gross injustice in the state's custody system. Yesterday, she was stunned again at the price tag of visitation. She said Comprehensive Family Services, the firm appointed to supervise her, has warned her to expect costs of $4,500 to $5,000 per week. "It's like a poll tax and it basically is like terminating my parental rights," Marks said. "As long as I've agreed not to let the children be interviewed, I don't see why I need supervised visitation." The social workers must accompany her and the girls everywhere - even the bathroom - and are preparing a script for things she should say, Marks said. "It's just bizarre," she said, "and completely insane." Judge
Balks Bridget's Twin Hopes
New York Daily News Bridget Marks has no idea
when she will see her 4-year-old A month after transferring custody of little Amber and Scarlet to their millionaire dad and his wife, Manhattan Family Court Judge Arlene Goldberg stunned Marks this week by indicating she might let the twins stay at their dad's Malibu, Calif., estate all summer. Then again, she might not. The judge might allow the
children to stay overnight at their mother's home for a visit.
Bridget Marks
hugs The judge also is not responding to new questions about whether the girls will be allowed to attend Catholic church services or Sunday school. "I miss them so much," Marks said Friday, as she began to cry. "I miss them more than I ever imagined I could." All month, Marks has been required to pay court-appointed social workers to monitor daily phone calls with her kids. "They keep asking me, 'Mommy, when are we coming home?' - and I'm not allowed to say anything," she said. "It's just not fair." In May, Goldberg ordered the twins given to their father, John Aylsworth, president of President Casinos Inc., on the condition he move within 40 miles of Marks' upper East Side home. But when he will make the move remains unclear. Marks, a former Playboy model, began an affair with Aylsworth in 1998. She became pregnant, resisted pressure from Aylsworth and his wife to have an abortion, then reared the twins alone. Goldberg ruled that because Marks, 38, was denigrating Aylsworth, the children would be better off living with their 54-year-old father. Aylsworth, the judge's May order declared, could take the girls anywhere on vacation for a "consecutive four-week period" beginning June 1. "The children shall then have supervised visitation time with the mother for a one-week period," she ruled. But for weeks, Goldberg, who is the subject of an abuse-of-judicial-authority complaint by Marks to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, has failed to give her lawyers guidelines for how the distraught mom can visit her daughters. "It's becoming surreal," said Tom Shanahan, Marks' attorney. "It's out of control." Shanahan said he expects Goldberg to issue a more detailed order today. Aylsworth's attorney did not respond to a call seeking comment. Although courtrooms in Family Court are supposed to be open to the public, and despite public interest in the case, Goldberg has begun holding hearings by telephone with lawyers - making it impossible for the public to hear what she says or observe what the elected judge does. Before leaving their mother, Amber and Scarlet Aylsworth had attended Mass at a Catholic church most Sundays with Marks. Aylsworth, Marks contends, is refusing to allow them to continue going to church. Marks had hoped to have her daughters attend Sunday school to prepare them for their First Communion in two years. "Now, John even wants to
take Jesus away from them," Marks said. Courts See Moms as Guilty till Proven Innocent By Amy Neustein and Michael
Lesher Bridget Marks' tearful farewell to her 4-year-old twins after a Manhattan Family Court judge ordered them into the custody of a father they accused of touching their private parts is a scene reenacted in custody trials across the country, in which mothers bring good-faith allegations of sexual abuse. All too often, young children are taken from the only home they have ever known, not because their mother has been found unfit, but because she was concerned about improper sexual contact between her children and their father. Judges in New York and other states have adopted a bizarre rule that a mother alleging sex abuse in a custody dispute is guilty until proved innocent: If her abuse charge is not supported by overwhelming evidence, she will lose custody for making an accusation that "poisons" the relationship between father and child. In fact, as we are seeing in the Marks case, she can end up being doubly penalized: After she loses custody, the accused abuser can actually hit her up for child support. Marks' suspicions were not without support. A baby-sitter reported that the children told her their father had "touched their peepee." A police investigator was concerned enough about the charges to recommend that a prominent forensic psychologist interview the children (an interview that was never allowed to take place). Another psychologist recommended strict supervision for the father's visits with the girls. Judge Arlene Goldberg held the mother to a Kafkaesque standard: While rejecting evidence that explained the mother's suspicions, the judge required Marks to prove she would foster a "loving" relationship between the man accused of abuse and the children she was desperately trying to protect. Adding insult to injury for Marks, supervisors appointed by the court actually left the father alone with the children on several critical occasions, court papers show. What happened to Marks has happened to mothers across the country. We have studied two decades' worth of custody litigation, and we have found that mothers who raise allegations of sexual abuse against the children's fathers are likely to be punished with the loss of custody even when there is no proof that the abuse charges were fabricated or that they did anything to harm their children's welfare. Courts focus instead on the supposed evil of making a charge that, by its very nature, is extremely difficult to prove. Then, with the fathers presumed innocent, the mothers bear the burden of proving that their intentions were good. If they fail, they end up like Marks, who cannot even speak to her children without professional supervision but who now may have to pay child support to their rich father. Neustein and Lesher are authors of "From Madness to Mutiny: Why Are Mothers Running from the Family Court?" due out in spring 2005.
Twins' Daddy Twists Knife By Bob Port He got her kids, and now he wants her money, too. The big-bucks corporate exec who stunned New Yorkers by taking 4-year-old twins away from his ex-mistress sued her yesterday for child support. John Aylsworth makes $521,000 a year as president of riverboat casinos in Missouri and Mississippi. Bridget Marks, 38, the former Playboy model who lost legal custody of her daughters to Aylsworth last month and does not have a job, was nearly speechless. "I just don't understand," she said. "It's just too ridiculous." "It's like pulling the wings off a fly," said Raoul Felder, the city's dean of divorce law, who is not involved in the case. "This shows a kind of arrogance, to even attempt something like that." Aylsworth's attorney was unavailable for comment. A hearing in the bizarre custody drama is scheduled in Manhattan Family Court today. Aylsworth, 54, a married man for 34 years, began an affair with Marks in 1998 that ended bitterly in 2002. He had paid Marks $6,000 a month after Amber and Scarlet were born in September 1999. He stopped the payments in late 2002, but in early 2003 a court ordered him to fork over $4,200 a month. On May 21, Manhattan Judge Arlene Goldberg awarded custody to Aylsworth and his wife on the grounds that Marks alienated the girls against their father and made false accusations that he sexually abused them. Under New York law, Aylsworth may win child support from Marks, but probably not much. Using a legal formula, a judge would start with $80,000 or more as an annual child-rearing cost, then divide that amount in proportion to each parent's income. Marks then would owe a fraction of that amount. With no job and legal bills of nearly $800,000, Marks relies on her mother, fianc鳬 and others for help. She got a $25,000 book advance this year for a romance novel but owes an editor one-third of that and an agent 10% to 15%. Still, the law would let a judge "impute" an income figure for Marks based on odd sources of cash. The judge could also calculate extra costs for the custodial parent, such as private school and medical care - and even baby-sitters to help Aylsworth's wife, who cares for her cheating husband's love twins. Hal Mayerson, co-chairman of the state Bar Association's custody law committee, called the child-support suit "nothing more than harassment." "This is the dumbest thing this guy could do, because he's now opened his finances to Bridget Marks," Mayerson said. "I don't understand why this was done other than to to just drive her crazy." Fed Judge Turns Twins' Ma Away
Mom's
Pain
Spelled Out
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The
ugly battle over Bridget Marks' two beautiful children drags on.
John
Aylsworth, the philandering casino king who battled ex-Playboy model
Bridget Marks for custody of their love twins, has anted up in the
drive to revive riverboat gambling in the city. 
Bridget
Marks got a not-so-nice birthday surprise from the father of her
twin daughters yesterday a long wait in Manhattan Family Court.
She's
been through a year of hell, but now Bridget Marks can't stop
smiling. 
For
the rest of the country, it's still a month away, but for Bridget
Marks, yesterday was Mother's Day. 
children
were born, he refused to
sign an acknow-ledgement
of paternity, therefore relinquishing any legal
responsibility. She continued her relationship with the man
after the birth of the girls, knowing he was married.
was
true. I was given an affidavit by an M.D., a child
psychiatrist from Columbia University saying that my
daughters had been inappropriately touched, or that she
thought that there was about a 60-70 percent chance that
they had been touched. She gave me an affidavit to go to the
court and to tell the court that the father should only have
the strictest access to the children under court
supervision."
Dr.
Phil introduces Dean Tong and Kathie Mathis, two
individuals who are helping Bridget fight her
custody battle. Dean is an author and a consultant
on contested custody abuse cases, and has been
working for 20 years on these types of cases. He
says that he has seen a lot of errors in this case.
"We believe that this is a case of bad science
producing bad law."
Dr.
Kathie Mathis is a psychologist who works with
mothers who are in a similar position to Bridget and
their children. She has helped Bridget write an
affidavit stating the impact of what's taken place.
again. 