Only truth in Wade custody case: Boys the real victims

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When all was said and done Friday in the closing arguments of NBA star Dwyane Wade’s child custody trial, there were very few clear truths.

The only one that everyone agreed on was that two little boys are confused and caught in the middle of one of the most bitter celebrity custody battles to play out in Cook County Circuit Court.

And that “is just the saddest thing,” Cook County Circuit Court Judge Renee Goldfarb said at the end of a six-hour recap of allegations and accusations by attorneys representing Wade, ex-wife Siohvaughn Wade, and their two sons, 8-year-old Zaire and 2-year-old Zion.

“I have two parents who truly love their sons, and extended families, aunts and grandmothers and just all these people who love them,” Goldfarb said.

“I do know all the attorneys have done everything they can, and I’m not sure I could have done better to get the parties to work together. So I can only promise I’m going to do the very best I can on this case. Unfortunately, the only ones who are ever going to suffer in this case are these two little boys.”

Wade, a former Richards High School and Marquette University star, and his ex-wife, who was his childhood sweetheart, have been battling since the couple split in 2007, and Siohvaughn Wade moved from their Florida home back to the south suburbs. Both are seeking sole custody of their children.

In closing arguments, Dwyane Wade’s attorney, James B. Pritikin of Nadler, Pritikin & Mirabelli, LLC, repeated his central accusations that Wade’s ex-wife has anger issues and needs psychiatric treatment, lies and manipulates, has used his children as pawns to get back at him for the divorce, and in the process has alienated him from their affection.

Dwyane Wade was not in court Friday, but his mother and sister were, remaining stone-faced throughout the proceedings.

Siohvaughn Wade was there, sitting stoically as the lawyers argued.

Siohvaughn Wade’s attorney, Michael A. Haber of Kalcheim Haber, LLP, repeated her assertions that the basketball star is using his money and power to denigrate her and take her children, despite his having been preoccupied with his career and leaving it to her to raise the kids since their birth. Haber also argues that the children are attached to their mother and should not be torn from her and their south suburban friends, schools and community, and that Dwyane Wade has no time to raise kids, so that her kids would be raised by his family and mostly strangers.

And Lester Barclay of Barclay, Dixon & Smith, appointed by the court to represent the children, sided with the father’s attorneys.

The former couple’s acrimonious child custody fight had grown ever more outrageous over the past three years, under a mountain of lawsuits and counter suits each filed against the other. And much of it — like accusations that the basketball star gave his ex-wife a sexually transmitted disease and engaged in inappropriate behavior with new girlfriend and Hollywood actress Gabrielle Union in front of their kids — became fodder for the media. Siohvaughn Wade later withdrew the disease claim and a suit against Union was thrown out.

The divorce was finalized last June.

Goldfarb is expected to make a ruling on which parent will get custody within 60 days.