U.S. State Department to Decide Fate of Angie Vu

Angie Vu – Photo: ROB RICH / SPLASH NEWS

The New York Daily News is reporting that a Brooklyn federal magistrate judge has ruled that France has met its legal obligation for the extradition of Angie Vu to face parental abduction charges in Paris. In his decision, Magistrate Judge Viktor Pohorelsky wrote in his decision “that it is beyond his jurisdiction to address Vu’s claims she was a victim of domestic violence“. The U.S. State Department must now approve the extradition as the final step.

Angie Vu ignored a court order on August 29, 2015 and did not return her 9-year old child to the custodial father in Paris. On November 4, 2015, Vu was arrested and has been incarcerated in Metropolitan Detention in Brooklyn, New York since.

Source

Secretary of State Kerry to decide on fate of sexy DJ Angie Vu, who faces extradition by John Marzulli (New York Daily News, 02-08-2016)

Editor’s Note: The U.S. State Department should act swiftly and decisively in approving the extradition of Angie Vu to France. Like Kelly Rutherford, Vu engaged in “forum shopping” to find another venue after losing custody. The judge was correct in not allowing her to use the domestic violence allegations to stall the extradition like Eileen Clark did the United Kingdom; Dorothy Lee Barnett did in Australia; and Holly Ann Collins in the Netherlands. The proper venue for the case is Paris, France and Angie Vu can use those claims in her criminal defense. If she didn’t like the custody arrangement, rather than withholding custody in the United States — she should have used her lawyers in Paris rather than kidnap her 9-year old to Vietnam to live with her family members.

Like Kelly Rutherford, I believe celebrities like Angie Vu should be held to a higher standard. Angie should apologize to the French Courts, her former spouse, her daughter and become a spokesperson for International Custody Cases and International Coparenting.

Another Celebrity International Family Abduction Case – Model/DJ Angie Vu Ha Jailed

On November 4, 2015, Angie Vu Ha was arrested at JFK Airport as she tried to flee the United States for China. France called for the US to extradite Vu. She has been held in a Brooklyn Jail since. Angie Vu Ha had initially agreed to return her daughter to the child’s father, Richard Froger in Paris on August 29. She has been denied bail. Vu had emailed Froger that she was taking the girl to live with her family in Vietnam for one year.

Vu, who has been called ‘Asia’s sexiest DJ’, is facing child abduction charges in France. She allegedly bough tickets for the flight one day after losing custody of her daughter.The model has posed for Playboy and has appeared on America’s Got Talent.

France calls on US to extradite ‘Asia’s sexiest DJ’ languishing in Brooklyn jail after she was arrested trying to flee the country with her daughter when she lost custody battle (The Daily Mail, 01-01-16)

Editor’s Note: What was celebrity Angie Vu thinking? In the aftermath of the Kelly Rutherford International Custody Case, why would she think she could take her child to Vietnam after losing custody. The child had been spending the summer in the United States like the Rutherford children. Angie Vu has a petition on GoPetition.com.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie International Custody Dispute

The January school session at the prestigious Lycée Français de New York private school in Manhattan is starting in January and their son will not be attending. Despite being ordered by a New York Judge to come back to New York, their son is staying in London with his dad.

We don’t know what is in the custody order, but it sounds like the venue of the case is in New York. For the son to move to London where he has been living since November, he should have received permission from the New York court. He and has father can’t open a new case in London (venue or forum shopping). There is a court date scheduled in New York in February.

In these teenager cases, this sounds more like a “runaway” then a “teenager family abduction”. And there is probably more to this case then we are reading in the tabloids such as the son blocking Madonna from her Instagram and Mandonna being too controlling.

Madonna did a movie called The Next Best Thing in 2000 with Benjamin Bratt. In that movie, Madonna’s character goes through a custody dispute. She is certainly familiar with this subject matter.

As we have said in other cases, celebrities like Madonna, Guy Ritchie, Kelly Rutherford and Alec Baldwin are role models for the rest of society. As teenagers will be teenagers, it is important for parents to stand together in coparenting these young adults. We hope that these celebs living on different continents can work out their International Custody Agreements for the best interests of their children.

Forced Exile from Homeland? International Child Abduction?

Is Attorney Wendy Murphy helping or hurting International Family Abduction Cases when she claims that Kelly Rutherford’s children have been “forced into exile from their homeland”? In following International Custody Cases over the past two decades, I have personally never heard any parent or his or her attorney make this allegation. My first thoughts were to tell Wendy Murphy that she Kelly Rutherford’s children are not living in exile, they are living with their custodial father, an International entrepreneur in Monaco.

For those not familiar with Monaco, it is on the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by France. It is not a member of the  European Union. It maintains and open border and customs union with France. It is known for its glitzy casinos, yacht-lined harbor and its Grand Prix motor race. It appears on the top of many lists as the world’s wealthiest place.

Monaco

So is Wendy Murphy actually trying to convince Americans that Kelly Rutherford’s children are living in exile, going to school with the children of some of the wealthiest people in the World. I understand that the children attend a very elite private school.

Kelly Rutherford recently declared bankruptcy. She has recently moved from Los Angeles to New York. She is reported to be in a new relationship for the past two months. She has been on her media crusade to bring her children back to America. Now I am not a Family Court Judge, Family Court Evaluator, Child Psychiatrist, Child Psychologist but does anyone other than People Magazine and the other spoon-fed journalists and social media news sites really believe that Kelly Rutherford is emotionally available for her children? Does she actually want them forcibly removed from the their private school and habitual residence in Monaco?

I personally think that the term “forced from exile from their homeland” as it relates to International Custody cases should be reserved for other other cases. There are a number of cases where both Americans and Foreign Nationals have fled the American Justice System with American-born children. As I’ve stated before, it’s time for Kelly Rutherford and Wendy Murphy to move the conversation to International Custody and International Co-parenting.