Angelina Jolie has requested for the removal of their private judge in divorce case with Brad Pitt in order to ensure a fair trial, this request comes after three years of being assigned to oversee the ongoing proceedings. Jolie filed to disqualify judge John W. Ouderkirk, and claimed the judge “failed to make timely mandatory disclosures of ongoing business and professional relationships between himself” and Pitt’s legal team.
The 45-year-old actress and philanthropist says she has never objected to their judge’s continued involvement in this proceeding until now, however it was revealed by her lawyer Samantha Bley DeJean that he had an “ongoing professional and financial relationship” with two of Pitt’s attorneys, which could eventually made him “biased.”
Ouderkirk is also known to be the same judge who married her and Brad Pitt back in 2014, as stated in the documents filed by Brad’s legal team, “Ouderkirk has had a well-documented history with the parties to this proceeding their counsel, including, without limitation, being hand-selected by Jolie to preside over the couple’s nuptials in 2014 and serving as a neutral in several matters.”
Pitt’s attorneys have also responded by saying this is a”thinly veiled attempt by Jolie to delay the adjudication of long-pending custody issues in this case,” referring to the child custody trial ahead in October of this year, and adding that the motion should be denied because the “individuals hurt most” by her actions are the couple’s six children, “as they continued to be deprived over a resolution to these custody issues.”