Without a doubt, there is no excusing much of Mel Gibson’s outrageous behavior over the last few years.  Most recently, the almost unbelievable voice mails left for his estranged girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, left many wondering if Mel Gibson couldn’t stand to learn a lesson or ten about low-contact with a high-conflict ex girlfriend in a child custody case.  If nothing else, many others can learn from his mistakes in leaving such volatile voice mails in the face of losing access to your children.

In recent news, it appears that Mel Gibson was judged solely on his parenting ability when Judge Scott Gordon increased Mel’s child custody time earlier this month. Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva signed a parenting agreement back in May of 2010 which provide both with joint physical custody and joint legal custody of their daughter, Lucia.   In this original parenting agreement, Mel Gibson had parenting time with Lucia for six nights (including 3 overnight periods) every two weeks.  Judge Scott Gordon has boosted this parenting time by what amounts to about an additional day.

Not uncommon when there is a wealth of potential child support income at stake, Oksana Grigorieva has alleged that Mel Gibson attacked her earlier this year.  Mel Gibson has countered that this is all part of a plot on the part of Grigorieva to extort him.  Oksana Grigorieva filed this latest petition to completely remove Mel Gibson’s overnight parenting time and relegate the balance of his parenting time to supervised visitation.  Again, this is not a surprising move, particularly given the high profile nature of the case.  It would appear that Judge Scott Gordon disregarded the external issues (as yet, unproven) and focused on the parenting ability of Mel Gibson when surprising Oksana Grigorieva, not only by denying her petition, but by increasing Mel Gibson’s parenting time.

The criminal investigations involving both parties continue.