Mom of Urlacher's son makes emotional plea in court to get custody rights
FOX 32 NEWS - The mother of Brian Urlacher’s 11-year-old son is speaking out about their custody battle.
She’s also discussing for the first time the recent shooting death of her husband, which has surfaced as an issue in the fight.
The court battle heated up Wednesday between former Bears star Brian Urlacher and the mother of their 11-year-old son Kennedy, who made an emotional courtroom plea for the boy's return from Urlacher’s Arizona home.
FOX 32: You had absolutely nothing to do with your husband's death?
“Nothing to do, and if anyone, even if the public, read the police report, they would know, without a question of a doubt,” said mother Tyna Robertson.
Robertson insists she had nothing to do with the death of her husband, Ryan Karageorge, in late December. Her attorney says she's not even a suspect, so it's time for Urlacher to return their son from Arizona to Robertson's home in Willow Springs.
“There' s no allegations that Tyna's a bad mother, she's a great mom, his home is in Illinois, his friends, his brother, his sports, his school,” said attorney Steven Lake.
According to police reports, Robertson told police she and her husband were arguing on the night he was killed. He reached for a pistol in her purse and then he shot himself. Urlacher's attorneys have written to police pointing to contradictions in her story. Robertson says that wasn't proper, but Urlacher's attorney's disagree.
“It’s simply unfortunate that Ms. Robertson has filed so many things with the court making extreme and untrue allegations, against the child's father, against the child's fathers lawyers, and against judges. Now she seeks media coverage of a custody case which can only embarrass the child and make his the subject of public attention,” said attorney Anita Ventrelli.
“15 hours after Ryan died, they were serving a subpoena to the Willow Springs police department to ask for pictures of Ryan’s body. Who does that?” Robertson said.
Willow Springs police say the investigation remains open, and Urlacher's not commenting.
“He'll seek to protect his child as privately as possible in the courts, where custody cases belong,” Ventrelli said.
The 11-year-old did return to Illinois for a visit last weekend.
“He just held me and cried, and the sad part is that he knows and everyone knows that I would have never have had anything to do with Ryan’s death,” Robertson said.
The judge ordered that for the time being, Robertson should be allowed to visit her son in Arizona this weekend. The following weekend the boy will come back to Chicago, and then on March 8th, everyone is back in court for a hearing on the boy's future.