Weiner's Woes Could Lead to 'Ugly' Custody Battle

Woody Allen couldn't write a movie script like this, divorce lawyer says
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2016 6:03 AM CDT
Next in Weiner's Woes: Child Neglect Inquiry?
Anthony Weiner may have an "ugly" custody battle coming his way.   (AP Photo/Jin Lee, File)

Anthony Weiner has already lost wife Huma Abedin over his latest sexting transgressions, but the fact that Weiner's young son may have been in one of his late-night selfie sessions could have him in trouble with child services. Experts tell the New York Daily News—which says it won't be running Weiner's opinion columns anymore—that by apparently including his 4-year-old son in a sexually tinged photo, Weiner exercised "terrible judgment" at the least and possibly ventured into child-neglect territory. "Anytime adults draw children into their own sexual activity they have crossed the line," the director of Prevent Child Abuse New York tells the paper, no matter how "peripheral." And although law enforcement sources say Weiner isn't being criminally investigated right now, others note NYC's Administration for Children's Services department may get involved.

"Questions could be raised ultimately about his judgment as a caretaker," one forensic psychologist says. State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. says the agency should "at least investigate:" Per the New York Post, Diaz wrote an open letter calling for an immediate probe and also broached possible racial inequities in child neglect cases. "I am pretty sure that … if the adult in the photo with a toddler was black or Hispanic, [ACS] would have been knocking on the door," he says. All of this is setting the stage for what one divorce attorney tells the Post could be an "ugly" custody battle, with a judge having to compare "Huma's unavailability and heavy, out-of-the-home commitments versus a father who appears to lack every kind of parental judgment." "If Woody Allen wrote this into a movie nobody would believe him," another high-profile divorce lawyer says. (Twitter has not been kind to Weiner.)

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