Mel B’s estranged husband is accusing her of not cooperating with his legal team in their bitter domestic violence case.
Stephen Belafonte claims the former Spice Girl has not produced evidence necessary for discovery in order to prepare his legal defense, court documents obtained by Page Six reveal.
In March, Mel, 42, accused Belafonte of physically abusing her and sexually exploiting her, as well as of impregnating their nanny, whom Mel claimed Belafonte forced to have an abortion. (The nanny is currently suing Mel for defamation of character over the claims, despite having possibly contradicted herself in a recent hearing about her sexual relationship with Belafonte.)
Mel claimed to have photographic evidence of Belafonte’s alleged domestic abuse, but Belafonte, 42, alleges Mel hasn’t provided his legal team with the photographs. His legal team is seeking $5,550 in sanctions against Mel, who previously requested $5,027.50 in sanctions against Belafonte.
In the documents, filed Thursday, Belafonte slammed the “America’s Got Talent” judge for attempting to block his visitation of her daughter with Eddie Murphy, Angel.
“[Mel] continues to make mountains out of molehills all in an effort to alienate Angel from the only father Angel has ever known,” wrote Belafonte’s attorney Grace Jamra. “This despite the fact that prior to the commencement of this action, [Mel] agreed to allow [Belafonte] contact with Angel and [Belafonte] in fact did have contact with Angel and Madison, his biological child. [Belafonte] does not intend to interfere with the custodial rights of either of Angel’s parents. All that [Belafonte] requests is that he be allowed reasonable contact with his stepdaughter to ensure that this 10-year-old child does not feel or believe that the only father figure she has ever known has abandoned her while he continues to see her little sister.”
Included in the documents were screenshots of text messages Angel allegedly sent Belafonte, in which she calls him “daddy,” tells him she loves him and asks where he is. Due to the current temporary restraining order, Belafonte’s lawyers noted, he was unable to respond to Angel’s “heartwrenching” attempt to reach out.
Jamra accused Mel of trying to use the children in an attempt to punish Belafonte and gain leverage in custodial proceedings.
Mel’s lawyer, Susan Wiesner, didn’t bite, writing, “The further false narrative that you continue in advance is regarding the children. The parties only have one child that I am aware of and the more I learn about your client, the less inclined I am to see any benefit of him having any contact at this time with the children.”
A source told Page Six, “Mel’s attorney is clearly making trouble, needlessly causing more conflict. Melanie and her team are basically refusing to produce any evidence of abuse despite all the outrageous claims she has made public in her docs.”
Last month, a judge struck down Mel’s request to block Angel’s name from being added to her and Belafonte’s divorce proceedings.
On Monday, a judge also dismissed Mel’s attempts to keep the case sealed, TMZ reported, though the judge did agree to keep details regarding the children, including their visitation schedules, out of open court.
A source told Page Six late Tuesday that Mel’s restraining order case against the couple’s former nanny Lorraine Gilles “is now officially linked with Belafonte’s restraining order case and the divorce in general.”
As a result, a hearing originally scheduled for Sept. 25 in the restraining order case has been bumped back to Oct. 30 to accommodate the new arrangement. The insider noted that Belafonte and Mel each have to sit down for depositions on Oct. 10 and Oct. 16, respectively, leading up to the hearing.