In papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 2, Coley Laffoon is suing estranged wife Anne Heche for child custody of their son Homer, as well as child support, attorneys fees and costs; to modify visitation and spousal support, and payment of private school enrollment.
There is a hearing set for June 11. In the meantime, the couple were ordered to attend a custody mediation session on June 5 in Santa Monica.
Laffoon wants sole physical custody of Homer (shared legal custody) and "reasonable" spousal support, "but not less than $33,000", and "exclusive temporary use, possession and control" of their Hancock Park-area house in Los Angeles (plus he wants Heche to pay the nearly $10,000-a-month mortgage until its settled).
Among some of more interesting items in the filing, Laffoon requests that neither party take the child to "any mental health professional without the prior written consent of the other party"; basically, he wants to know where Anne will be at all times when she has Homer and "that the Minor Child, at all times, be placed in a safety car seat when travelling in an automobile."
As part of the custody evaluation, Laffoon is seeking to have the court order "a Psychiatric Child Custody Evaluation" of both parents.
In his declaration, Laffoon describes the couple’s marriage arrangement:
"I am currently unemployed and was not employed during the marriage. At the time Respondent [Heche] became pregnant with our son, we jointly agreed that I would stay home to take care of our child and Respondent would continue to work. Respondent and I came to the conclusion that it was better for our son to have a stay-at-home parent than for me to earn very little money by attempting to obtain employment. It made little sense to have me go back to work since, prior to our marriage, I was employed as a videographer and earned about $6,000 per year (gross)."
Laffoon points out that Heche makes $81,000 per episode for her ABC television show "Men in Trees," and that including royalties from other work, she earns $113,247 a month. Basically he wants to "maintain the marital standard of living," including dining out "approximately three (3) times a week" and he wants to go to graduate school.
He also estimates Heche's custodial time spent with Homer as "approximately 25%." He says they decided when Anne got pregnant that he would be "the primary caregiver."
The suit includes some other ugly details, with headings like "RESPONDENT [Heche] REFUSES TO ABIDE BY EXISTING AGREEMENTS...FOR THE BENEFIT OF HOMER" and "RESPONDENT EXERCISES POOR PARENTAL JUDGMENT". At one point Laffoon claims that Heche "has at times exhibited bizarre and delusional behavior for which she refuses to seek professional help." He describes an incident when Heche called him one night from an airport freaking out because she didn't know where she was.