Around this time a year ago, Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Ira Peskowitz stood in a greeting card aisle, fingers trembling as he fumbled through rows of pink and purple birthday wishes to find something pretty for a little girl with eyes like his.

Months before the six words she uttered on a Dr. Phil episode propelled her to internet infamy, Danielle Peskowitz Bregoli reluctantly accepted the card and a pair of Nikes from Peskowitz in a hastily-arranged meeting at the Boynton Beach Mall – more a peace offering than an early birthday present from a father she hadn’t seen in years.

Tears welled in Peskowitz’s eyes Monday when he recalled that encounter during an exclusive newspaper interview with The Palm Beach Post.

Months into her notoriety as the “Cash me Outside” girl for a fight invitation she made to audience members on the daytime talk show, Danielle is at the center of a custody battle recently revived by her father, who says he wants her out of Hollywood, into therapy and eventually at his house with his wife and their two sons.

A screen shot from The Dr. Phil Show episode which featured the “Cash Me Ousside” viral sensation teen, Danielle Bregoli, 13, of Boynton Beach.

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

“She’s not famous,” Peskowitz said. “She’s a child that is being exploited.”

Ever since Peskowitz first broke his silence with a Palm Beach Post interview in February, he said he’s received an overwhelming show of support from other parents he claims, like him, were shut out of their children’s lives with disastrous results.

It was important to him to make at least two things clear, he said in the more recent interview. First, he and his daughter had reconnected months before her Dr. Phil appearance and her now-viral taunt, “Cash me outside, how bow dah?” And, he said, he has the emails and paperwork to prove he was trying to get her help before the show.

Second, he said he has shunned offers of paid interviews and says he’ll never seek financial gain from his daughter’s story. To date, he says a GoFundMe page created to help with his legal fees has been the only public solicitation for help to fight what his attorney in court records earlier this month says are “intentional actions” of the girl’s mother, Barbara Bregoli, to keep him and Danielle apart.

Related: Lake Worth woman, 27, files suit against ‘Cash Me Outside’ girl’s mom

Peskowitz says he believes his daughter actually wants out of her fast-paced life and to return to Florida, attend school and have a normal childhood.

Although published reports and the girl’s Instagram page had her still in Los Angeles as of a few days ago, an attorney for a woman who sued Danielle and her mother Wednesday said they were recently spotted in Florida.

Either way, plans appear to be underway to parlay the 13-year-old girl’s internet success into big public-appearance fees and a possible reality TV show. Danielle has already filmed advertisements for companies like FitTea on her Instagram page, which boasts 8. 3 million followers. A website linked to that page on Wednesday also was accepting subscribers and had a countdown to what could be either a website launch or an announcement of some sort.

Peskowitz says he has talked to his daughter twice recently while she was in California. In one conversation, he said, Danielle told him her management team was upset he was fighting for custody, and she added that she no longer wanted him in her life.

“Danielle needs to know that I love her,” Peskowitz said from his Royal Palm Beach home, saying he can provide her with the loving environment she needs and adding: “I don’t think she really knows what love is.”

Ira Peskowitz is the father of Danielle Bregoli, the 13-year-old girl who gained viral internet status after her 2016 appearance on the Dr. Phil show. Peskowitz at his home in Royal Palm Beach, Florida on March 20, 2017. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post)

Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post

As of early Wednesday, Peskowitz said Bregoli, who was living in Boynton Beach with her daughter, hadn’t been served with court papers about his new custody dispute. Once she is served, she’ll have 20 days to respond, and the two parents will eventually wind up in front of a Palm Beach County judge, who will ultimately decide whether Peskowitz will be allowed visitation and decision-making power in Danielle’s life.

In another twist to the family saga, published reports surfaced Wednesday with an undated video showing Barbara and Danielle Bregoli in what looks like an altercation, with Bargara Bregoli pulling Danielle by her hair and pushing her head into the ground while Danielle looks to be throwing punches back.

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“She kept talking about me being a cop, saying, ‘You’re a troll,’” Peskowitz said. “I said, ‘No, I’m your father.”

It was only after a subsequent lunch meeting that Peskowitz said he began to unravel his daughter’s troubled connections and brushes with the law. On Monday, Peskowitz provided The Palm Beach Post with emails he sent to colleagues at PBSO as proof he tried to get his daughter some help for months before she went on the Dr. Phil show in the fall.

Learning about Danielle’s life brought with it deep feelings of regret for both Ira and Stephanie Peskowitz, who both brushed back tears as they wondered aloud whether backing away from Danielle as a toddler was the right choice.

Related: Cash me outside’ teen from Boynton nursed her mother through chemo

“I feel guilty now, because I feel like maybe if we didn’t stop fighting, things wouldn’t have gotten to this point,” Stephanie Peskowitz said.

Ira Peskowitz with his wife Stephanie, holding a stack of police reports from the Boynton Beach police department visits to his daughter Danielle Bregoli's home she shares with her mother Barbara Bregoli. The 13-year-old girl gained viral internet status after her 2016 appearance on the Dr. Phil show. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post)

Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post

The Peskowitzes also decided not to tell their sons, now 9 and 11, about their sister, even after Bregoli asked Peskowitz to let Danielle meet her brothers when they reconnected last year. Ira Peskowitz said he again told Bregoli he thought they should enlist the help of a social worker or therapist for such an introduction, thinking there would be time to do it “the right way” later.

That all changed when Danielle’s online exposure signaled they would soon find out anyway. The couple said even though their sons have been teased in school about their sister, the boys always tell her they love her in the brief phone conversations they’ve had and are eager to meet her.

Even before he knew the “Cash me Outside” girl was his sister, the Peskowitz’s oldest son shocked his father when he said he wanted to meet her.

“I asked him why,” Peskowitz said. “He said, ‘I want to help her, because everyone has good in them.”

Staff writer Alexandra Seltzer contributed to this story.