Damon Dash To Judge: “All I Want To Do Is Be A Father Again”

Dash In Courtroom Plea After Judge Refuses To Rule On Custody Case

Damon Dash was blindsided Tuesday when an LA Family Court judge refused to rule on his child custody case.

At issue is whether the LA or New York City courts are the right venue to hear the case. Dash and ex-wife Rachel Roy’s divorce settlement, which hashed out child custody, was filed in NYC, but Roy was awarded sole custody in LA.

The excuse did little to soothe the former head of Roc-A-Fella Records, who told an LA Family Court judge that the protracted case – which was rescheduled to October – was ruining his relationship with his daughters, Ava, 15 and Tallulah, 6.

“My main concern is that can we have the hearing sooner,” he said, “because it’s destroying my daughter’s relationship with me, and parental alienation is irreversible.”

Dash complained that he has to get on a plane every time he wants to visit his daughters, and the current conditions of the custody order mean that he can’t spend time with them without a court ordered monitor at a cost of $100 an hour.

“My daughter is six, and there’s no man there to protect her,” Dash said. “And she’s used to having her daddy in her life. And my 15 year old –this is when girls go to the left –there’s so many things that I don’t know.”

Dash remains on the run from two warrants in New York for outstanding child support payments.

Roy was not in court; her lawyer said she has laryngitis.

Roy filed for an out-of-state custody earlier this year. In April, a judge awarded Roy sole custody of the girls, during a hearing that Dash didn’t attend. Dash said he was supposed to go to court that day, but Roy’s lawyer promised him that they’d settle the case out of court, so he went out of town.

“All I want to do is be a father again,” Dash said.