Judge escalates custody battle

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 1997 | 9:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Despite winning twice in the Nevada Supreme Court, Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley is still battling to get joint custody of his 5-year-old son.

In a petition filed Friday, Mosley says his former girlfriend and mother of Michael Mosley has refused to disclose her address and telephone number. He accuses her of leading a "nomad lifestyle" in Clark County, moving from one home to another.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, ordered joint custody between Mosley and Terry Figliuzzi, the boy's mother. The court last week unanimously refused a request by Figliuzzi to reconsider its decision.

Mosley says District Judge Steven Kosach, who handled the case, has refused to abide by the Supreme Court's order. Mosley says the joint custody order, first issued in 1993, allowed him to choose the education for the boy and Figliuzzi to choose the religious upbringing.

Mosley enrolled the boy to start kindergarten Monday at Wasden Elementary School in Las Vegas. But Kosach has ruled the child should enter kindergarten at a Boulder City school where he attended day care and preschool.

Under the joint custody order, the boy was to be with Mosley from Saturday morning to Tuesday evening and with Figliuzzi the rest of the time. That joint custody order was changed in 1994 by Kosach of Reno to permit Mosley to have the boy every other weekend and two weeks of vacation each year.

The Supreme Court nullified the Kosach order and said the joint custody directive should be in effect until there was a change. Kosach has now ordered both sides to submit additional briefs in the case by mid-September.

Meanwhile, Mosley wants to get his son started in school at Wasden, which opened classes Monday.

Mosley, through his lawyers James Jimmerson and Carl Lovell Jr., filed the petition with the Supreme Court to force Kosach to abide by the previous Supreme Court order. And they want the case transferred out of Kosach's court to the Family Court system.