dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Are you kidding me? Sad.
Jeff Gordon’s ex-wife, Brooke, involved in custody battle over baby with last name of Gordon
A Charlotte man who fathered a child last year with Jeff Gordon’s former wife, Brooke Gordon, is now involved in a custody dispute that has included whether the child should have the last name of the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
James Dixon II has filed requests in North Carolina District Court in Charlotte to have Brooke Gordon agree to change the child’s name and for Brooke Gordon to provide him with support to help raise the child.
A proposed settlement offered by his lawyer that is filed with the court documents has suggested $10,000 a month, while a separate letter has also suggested a house valued between $1.2 million and $1.5 million and a Mercedes Benz.
The former Brooke Gordon, meanwhile, got married in May to former South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod, who is not the father of the boy.
As of now, the child’s last name is Gordon – as in Jeff Gordon, the four-time Cup champion who was once married to Brooke, a former Miss Winston he met in victory lane after winning a Daytona 500 qualifying race in February 1993.
Brooke Gordon, who was a familiar figure in the NASCAR garage, and Jeff Gordon divorced in 2003 in a high-profile case that included attempts by lawyers to subpoena NASCAR team owners during February race weeks at Daytona International Speedway. The final divorce agreement was never made public, but court documents indicate that Brooke Gordon got at least $15.3 million from the sale of two properties.
Jennifer Brooke Gordon gave birth to a baby Sept. 2, 2009, and gave him the last name of Gordon. Dixon, the father, wants the baby to have the last name of Dixon, and, according to court documents filed by both parties, Brooke Gordon has agreed to have the name changed.
“It is absolutely inappropriate for [the child] to be legally named after Jeff Gordon, who is neither his father nor a blood relative,” Dixon’s attorney wrote in a March 19 letter to Brooke Gordon’s attorney, which is part of the case file. “We understand that Ms. Gordon desired to keep her ex-husband’s last name, which is certainly her choice. But she planned to have a child and did have a child with James Dixon – not Jeff Gordon.”
A petition to change the name was filed in North Carolina Superior Court on July 16 with both the 28-year-old Dixon and 39-year-old Brooke Gordon listed as plaintiffs.
In her June 8 deposition, Brooke Gordon said because of the uncertainty of her relationship with Dixon, she gave the child the last name of Gordon. In her deposition, Brooke Gordon said she will change her name to Jennifer Brooke McLeod once the child’s name is changed to Dixon.
“As long as [the child’s] last name is Gordon, my last name is Gordon,” Brooke Gordon said in her deposition, which also is part of the court file.
Dixon attorney Amy Simpson declined to comment on the case. Brooke Gordon attorney Dorian Gunter said he could not comment until consulting with his client.
Brooke Gordon’s on-again, off-again relationships are detailed in depositions and affidavits in the court file. She began dating McLeod, now 38, in October 2006 and they broke up in June 2007.
According to a Dixon affidavit, he and Brooke Gordon dated in August and September 2007 and a few more times until February 2008. She eventually reunited with McLeod, and she testified she got engaged to McLeod in March 2008 but he broke it off in September 2008. She began dating Dixon again for a couple of months and testified she found out she was pregnant in late January 2009.
Dixon said in his deposition she told him she just wanted to be friends in March 2009. She had the baby in September 2009 and then began dating McLeod again in November, she testified.
She and McLeod got engaged again on Feb. 13, 2010, according to Brooke Gordon’s deposition. McLeod announced at a Feb. 19 news conference he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race but according to news reports did not mention Brooke Gordon as a reason for his bowing out. Brooke Gordon and McLeod were married May 16, according to her deposition.
There is no dispute over who is the father of the child, Brooke Gordon said in her deposition. The dispute is over whether she has primary custody and he gets visitation rights or whether they will share joint custody.
Dixon says in court filings that he had taken care of the baby for 39 nights during the first seven months but then Brooke Gordon limited him to custody every other weekend.
Also at issue is whether Brooke Gordon should buy a $1.2-$1.5 million home for Dixon, whose proposed child custody order asks for $10,000 a month and for the use of Brooke Gordon’s nannies to help take care of the child when he has custody. The house request was in a letter from Dixon’s attorney to Brooke Gordon’s attorney.
“[Dixon] has always been obsessed with [Brooke Gordon’s] wealth and lifestyle. …,” Brooke Gordon’s attorney writes in one court filing. “He now seems intent on extracting as much financial gain as possible out of [her] by creating an obstacle for [her] to pursuing life with her [then] fiance in the future.”
In his deposition, Dixon said he was concerned that the child eventually would not want to live with him. Dixon bought his current home for $385,000, according to his deposition.
“For him to go from one residence to the other, … what is he going to think, you know?” Dixon said in his deposition. “Is he not going to want to stay with me because I have something less?”
Brooke Gordon also asks in a June 25 court filing for unspecified support of the child, although in her June 8 deposition she said she refused to cash a check Dixon gave her.
Jeff Gordon, who is married to Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch, is not involved in the case.
