Usher's ex-wife fails to gain custody of children after pool accident

 
Usher greets his ex-wife, Tameka Foster after he was allowed to keep custody of their children following the hearing in Atlanta, Georgia
Reuters
Staff|Agency10 August 2013
The Weekender

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The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher has failed in her attempt to gain temporary custody of their two children.

Tameka Foster Raymond requested the emergency hearing yesterday, a day after the couple's five-year-old son got caught in a pool drain while in the care of the Grammy winner's aunt. After a hearing in which both Usher and Raymond took the stand, Superior Court Judge John Goger dismissed her request.

The judge said he wasn't certain anyone really could have done anything to prevent the accident. But he also advised Usher to keep his ex-wife well advised of his whereabouts and who is taking care of the children.

Emotional: Tameka Raymond breaks down in tears as a 911 tape of her son's near-drowning is played during the custody hearing in Atlanta
Reuters

After the judge issued his ruling, Usher approached his ex-wife and gave her a hug.

Usher Raymond V fell to the bottom of the pool and became stuck in the drain on Monday, according to an Atlanta police report. A housekeeper tried unsuccessfully to free him. A contractor doing work at the home pulled the boy from the pool and performed CPR.

The boy was "conscious, alert and breathing" when emergency medical workers arrived, police said. The boy was still in the hospital today.

"They're just assessing him," Raymond told reporters outside court after the hearing. "There is a lot we don't know. I mean you can't - it's only been a few days so we're very thankful that he's obviously alive but we still have to observe him and make sure that everything is OK."

Usher left the courthouse in Atlanta without speaking to reporters.

The court was told the boy "suffered a near-death accident" while left unsupervised at Usher's home when the singer was out of town.

But contrary to what Raymond claimed, Usher's aunt was at the pool watching the children when the older child became stuck in the drain, and Usher was at a music studio one highway exit away, said the singer's lawyer John Mayoue.

The pool accident comes nearly a year after Raymond's 11-year-old son, Kile Glover, Usher's stepson, died from injuries he suffered when he was run over by a personal watercraft on a lake near Atlanta.

Raymond, who is a hair and wardrobe stylist, was emotional during her testimony.

"He doesn't confer with me regarding anything," she said, explaining that she never knows where Usher is, where the children are and who's taking care of them. Usher travels frequently and uses child carers, including his aunt, who aren't trained to care for young children, Raymond said.

The judge said he thought Raymond's standards for a caregiver were unusually high and pointed out that many people leave their children with family members.

Usher and Tameka Raymond married in 2007 and divorced two years later. They went through a lengthy child custody battle, and Usher last year was awarded primary custody of the boys, who are about a year apart in age.

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