Angelina Jolie Wins Battle To Remove Judge Who Awarded Brad Pitt More Time With Kids From Case

The judge that Angelina Jolie wanted to be ousted from her and Brad Pitt’s ongoing legal case has been removed for violating his ‘ethical obligations.’

Score one for Angelina Jolie. After Angie, 46, unsuccessfully tried to get Judge John Ouderkirk disqualified from her custody battle with Brad Pitt, a panel of three appellate judges reversed a previous court’s ruling in an opinion submitted on Friday (July 23). The judges found that Judge Ouderkirk “violated his ethical obligations” and disqualified him – meaning he’s now ineligible from serving as a temporary judge in the case. This is the judge who granted Brad, 57, more time with their five minor children — Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox — but that ruling is now void after this ruling. (Maddox, 19, is no longer part of the custody case due to being legally an adult.)

The judges, who oversaw the hearing on July 9, determined that Judge Ouderkirk’s “failure to make mandatory disclosures” about other legal proceedings involving Brad’s legal counseling “might cause an objective person, aware of all of the facts” to doubt Judge Ouderkirk’s impartiality. Angie failed to have the judge, who is also overseeing her and Brad’s divorce dispute, removed from the custody case last November.  Her lawyers argued that Judge Ouderkirk “denied Ms. Jolie a fair trial, improperly excluding her evidence relevant to the children’s health, safety, and welfare, evidence critical to making her case.”

This post is updating…