Southern CharmalumThomas Ravenel‘s sexual assault allegations could be used against him in his ongoing custody case with exKathryn Dennis.
PEOPLE confirmed on Friday that a judge denied Ravenel’s motion for a protective order to limit the discovery of events prior to June 2017; the alleged sexual assaults both took place in 2015.
Attorneys for Ravenel, 56, and Dennis, 26, had no comment.
Kathryn Dennis/Instagram
“[Ravenel] was charged with criminal assault and battery related to the prior sexual assault of the parties’ former nanny … Mr. Ravenel was charged with the criminal offense on September 24, 2018. The charges remain pending,” reads the documents.
(In September,Ravenel was chargedwith assault and battery in the second degree after a woman who worked as his children’s nanny accused him of rape,Charleston County jail recordsshow. A source told PEOPLE that Ravenel’s arrest is connected to her allegations. The arrest report lists the crime incident as “sex offense/forcible rape” and refers to an incident in January 2015, although most details have been redacted to protect the victim.)
(In May 2018, real estate agent Ashley Perkinsalleged to PEOPLEthat her mother, Debbie Holloway Perkins, met Ravenel on dating app Tinder in October 2015 and went on a last-minute first date with him on Dec. 25 of that year. Ashley alsodetailedthe allegations on her website. On June 1, 2016, Debbie and Ashley allegedly participated in mediation. According to Ashley, her mother signed a non-disclosure agreement with Ravenel and received $200,000.)
Now, Dennis believes that Ravenel’s alleged sexual assaults could have an impact on his parenting and she requested the court’s permission to use the information in their custody battle.
The return explained that Ravenel was claiming that he wanted “to limit any discovery as to events occurring prior to June 30, 2017.”
“It is transparent that [Ravenel] wants to claim that Court can’t consider the prior sexual assaults despite the obvious fact that such assault are important in regard to evaluating his parental fitness and/or might result in a period of incarceration,” the documents state.
The reality star also believes that she “should be provided the rest to conduct discovery of such past history of the parties because it could alter or modify the parental evaluations and/or cause Dr. Waid to reconsider the evaluation in light of the new evidence that has predominantly only come to light recently,” reads the documents.
The documents later state that “the scope of discovery should not be limited to an arbitrary date. [Dennis] has a right to obtain discovery of such past events since it can impact the parental fitness evaluation of Mr. Ravenel … Discovery of past events which reflect a pattern of the abuse of women or alcohol/drugs, a pattern of making threats to third parties, a pattern of relying upon a Nanny to take care of young children when a parent is incapable of doing so himself, are all potentially relevant to an ultimate issue of Final Custody ruling in this case.”
She will appear in court on March 13, when she is scheduled to request that their case be sealed.
In 2016, Ravenel was awarded full custody, but Dennis has sinceearned back 50/50 custody. In October, shefiled documentsin Charleston seeking to obtain primary custody of the two children, and on Nov. 6, Ravenel filed a counterclaim, vehemently denying all of Dennis’ allegations.
After the new year, Dennisfiled new court documents, in which she made a series of requests. Among them, she asked for Ravenel’s “credit card monthly statements” from Jan. 1, 2016 to the present; “itemized cellular/mobile phone records” from Jan. 1, 2016 to the present; and copies of electronic or social media posts from the past four years, as well as whether Ravenel has “had any discussions” withon-off girlfriend Ashley Jacobs“about marriage and/or plans to marry Ashley Jacobs.”
source: people.com
