Kid Cudi's attorney issues statement calling custody reports 'false'

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Kid Cudi’s attorney Lauren Blair is calling a TMZ report her client “gave up” custody of his daughter due to a “history of violence and drug addiction” false.

Blair points out her client and the daughter’s mother reached an “amicable agreement” in August which solves any dispute over “parenting time” and “legal custody.”

The details of that agreement, according to Blair, will remain private.

The full statement is below:

There has been several reports that “Kid Cudi gives up full custody of daughter” which several gossip sites re-ran under the headline “Kid Cudi Gives Up Full Custody of His Daughter Due to ‘History of Violence and Drug Addiction.'”  The statement that Kid Cudi gave up full custody due to a history of violence and drug addiction is simply false.  The truth is that in August 2012, Kid Cudi and his daughter’s mother jointly reached an amicable agreement on the issues of legal custody and parenting time.  While Kid Cudi’s lawyer, Lauren Blair of the Chicago-based law firm, Pedersen & Houpt, will not comment on the details of the parties’ custody and parenting agreement, which are private, she did state that the final custody judgment in Kid Cudi’s case expressly acknowledges that “both parents are fit and proper persons to have custody of their child.”

Ms. Blair also made clear that allegations of a purported history of drug and alcohol use and violent behavior that were made in the early stages of the case were based on “stale” information from internet videos, interviews and other “unreliable hearsay sources” about alleged isolated incidents with unrelated persons as far back as December 2009, June 2010 and July 2010.  In fact, Kid Cudi voluntarily agreed to take a drug test to dispute those allegations and to dispel any notion that he was unfit to parent based on allegations of illegal drug use, and the test results came back negative for drugs.  According to Ms. Blair, “Those pleadings did not contain a single allegation that the mother ever personally observed Kid Cudi using drugs or alcohol, or acting violent, and there was certainly never any allegation during the entire case that Kid Cudi engaged in any kind of illegal substance use or violence in the presence of his daughter, nor was Kid Cudi ever shown to be unloving, uninvolved or in any way a danger or threat to his child.”

Kid Cudi was also never proven to be an “absentee dad” or a deadbeat dad who didn’t want to be involved in his child’s life or tried to shirk his parental obligations.  The court formally acknowledged that Kid Cudi had, since his daughter’s birth, “attempted to establish a relationship with the child and visit with the child when not on tour, or when he is in Chicago or in the state of Ohio where both parties are originally from.”  The court also recognized that Kid Cudi had voluntary provided financial support, including child support, rent and other monthly payments, for his daughter since her birth until the time that a child support order was entered as part of the normal course of the case.

As for the parties’ custody agreement, it was just that: the parties’ agreement.  Ms. Blair explained “We don’t use the term ‘full custody’ in Illinois, so I don’t know what that means, but in Illinois, a parent can still be highly involved in his or her child’s life and have extensive parenting time as well as other significant parental rights without being awarded custody.”  Her final comment was “Both parties, as well as the judge and the parties’ lawyers, worked very hard over many months to reach an amicable resolution because everyone saw that it was in the child’s best interest to do so and saw two parents who both deeply love and care about their child.”

The Cleveland-born rapper is set to release his third studio album Indicud in early 2013.

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