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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Actress Christina Ricci and her former husband agreed today to delay until early next year any testimony on whether to extend the domestic violence restraining order she obtained against him in January, but the terms will remain in effect and he will still have some virtual and physical time with their 6-year-old son under a modified custody arrangement.
Just before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner was scheduled to begin hearing from witnesses Thursday morning, he accepted a suggestion by Larry M. Bakman, the attorney for former Ricci spouse James Heerdegen, that the two sides meet first and try to reach a resolution.
While the terms of the restraining order will remain in effect until the Jan. 28 status conference, Heerdegen will be allowed four 15-minute FaceTime visits with the couple's child, Frederick “Freddie'' Heerdegen, until Ricci returns from working on a film in Canada in late October. The couple had previously agreed in April to three FaceTime visits.
“He desperately wants to see his child,'' Bakman said.
After Ricci comes back to Los Angeles with their child, Heerdegen will additionally be able to be with Freddie on Wednesdays after school until 7 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Heerdegen will pay up to $5,000 to have a monitor present during the visits and Ricci will account for any balance, according to the agreement.
Heerdegen also will take part in an anger-management program. Although the restraining order prevents Heerdegen from coming within 100 yards of the actress, the agreement allows them to talk about their child.
Both Ricci and Heerdegen made virtual appearances for today's hearing, as did Bakman.
Heerdegen also sought a restraining order against Ricci that was denied, but that comes up for consideration again in January.
In his filing, Heerdegen claims Ricci drank heavily on a near-daily basis and engaged in “rants and raves'' toward him and the boy.
But the 41-year-old “Casper'' actress alleges Heerdegen subjected her to “severe physical and emotional abuse'' and that many incidents took place in front of their son. In a sworn declaration, Ricci alleged that Heerdegen began abusing her after she became pregnant in October 2013.
“I began to feel extremely isolated,'' Ricci wrote. “He (Heerdegen) said the only way he could feel sorry for me is if I were dismembered into small pieces.''
Ricci, who was previously linked to Chris Evans and Adam Goldberg, met Heerdegen, a camera technician, on the set of her short-lived television drama “'Pan Am'' in 2011. She filed for divorce in July 2020.
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