The long custody court battle for Jenelle Evans‘ son Jace appears to finally be coming to an end.
The Ashley can exclusively reveal that attorneys for Jenelle’s mom Barbara and Jace’s dad Andrew Lewis have filed to withdraw from the case. This comes shortly after Jenelle’s attorney, Brandon Pettijohn, officially notified the court that he wants to remove himself as the ‘Teen Mom’ star’s trusty attorney for both of her custody cases. (Jenelle had been using Brandon’s legal services for this case, as well as her divorce/custody case with ex David Eason.)
Barb’s lawyer Chris Heller and Jenelle’s attorney will go before a judge on October 19 so that the judge can sign off on their withdrawal. Andrew’s lawyer, Kathryn Johnston (whom he hired in April after raising more than $10,000 with a GoFundMe) will go before the judge several weeks later, on November 9.
(This is also the rescheduled date for the hearing in which Barb, Jenelle and Andrew are supposed to meet in court for regarding Jace’s custody case.)
A source tells The Ashley that having all three attorneys drop out of the case basically signifies that the case is about to be dropped.
“There’s nothing more for them to fight in court about,” the source said. “Jace is home with Barbara and Jenelle has accepted it and is allowing him to remain there without a fight. She has no intention of bringing Jace to Florida.
“Unless something drastic occurs between now and November 9, the court will almost certainly close the case,” the source added.
As The Ashley previously told you, the court has already continued Jace’s case four times. Although it still appears to be on the books for November 9 (as of press time), a court source for The Ashley states that the judge will likely just close the case at that time.
Jace lives with Barbara, and Andrew has been able to get the visitation with his son that he desired, so there’s not much more to do in the case. (Jace turns 18 in August 2027.)
In August, Jace went Live on social media to give an update on his life in North Carolina since Barb took over care of him.
“My grandma, she’s doing pretty good…I’m over here just living my life….” he said. “Everyone was happy to have me back home. I’ve been doing my best.”
Jenelle— who recently moved (again) to a new house in Florida with her son Kaiser and daughter Ensley— praised herself last week for her mothering capabilities.
“The little girl in me is so disappointed that I ended up a single mom. But the woman in me is so proud of the mother I am today,” a meme Jenelle posted on Facebook states.
“I gave it my all,” Jenelle captioned the post. “Things don’t turn out the way it should sometimes, but that’s okay.”
Some of Jenelle’s followers had some not-so-nice things to say about her post.
“Is this satire?” one person replied.
“Too bad you couldn’t ‘give your all’ to being a parent,” another person wrote.
“Duuuuudddeee,” someone else commented. “There is literally nothing about your parenting that is something to be proud of.”
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(Photos: MTV; Facebook)
How sad for Jace, hopefully his egg donor doesn’t decide to do what she does best and mess with his life anymore. All he’s gotta do is go the next 10 months and he’ll legally be free, so I get that nobody really wants to go through with the court case, to an extent. I mean, at this point with all the continuances, it would be a moot point because he’ll be 18 before they get in front of a judge anyway. But it’s unfortunate for Jace that this didn’t happen years ago, when delujenelle first got custody back. Also unfortunate for Kaiser, because you know he’s about to be next to go through all that Jace has, since Jace will be free and can’t be the go to metaphorical punching bag anymore.
I still think Jenelle’s first attorney, Dustin, has gone into the witness protection to avoid running into her at the courthouse.
I meant witness protection program.
Dustin has ran into David before (the interaction was in an article a year or two ago). Hes definitely not in witness protection. Plus his office is very easy to find off Google. It’s not hard to be cordial but decline representing a client again.
I mean we all knew Jenelle was *always* going to be a single mom with her awful decision making
For Jace’s sake, I hope Jenelle doesn’t change her mind on Jace’s custody before he turns 18. I’m scared for him though. After all the chaos he’s been through throughout his life, and especially recently, I don’t know what kind of adult he’s gonna end up as. I hope he fights against his upbringing and comes out a well adjusted young man, but it’s not likely. I wish the best for this poor kid.
“There is literally nothing about your parenting that is something to be proud of.” is the most accurate statement about Jenelle anyone has ever said.