NBA's Bryn Forbes in custody battle for two sons with ex-girlfriend Lansing mom worries that his fame will overshadow fairness

Judy Putnam | Lansing State Journal

LANSING – A Lansing mom fears fame and fortune will ruin her chance to gain custody of her two young sons.

Their father is Bryn Forbes, a rising NBA player with the San Antonio Spurs and a former Sexton High School and Michigan State University basketball player. Forbes, 24, has gained attention as an undrafted free agent who recently moved up as a key player with the Spurs.

The never-married pair are locked in a tense fight before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Janelle Lawless. The court must decide whether the boys will stay in Texas with their father or come back to Michigan where their mother, Raelynn Taylor, 25, lives.

Taylor says Forbes took the children from Michigan without her permission in June after their relationship failed; Forbes said he was worried about his sons' well-being.

While Taylor has a small income from working at an eyeglasses store, Forbes made a half-million last year in his rookie NBA year and his income likely will increase from there. He counts Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Amy Krause as a family friend. The judge testified as a character witness for Forbes in a referee hearing.

“She (Taylor) doesn’t have a judge to testify on her behalf. She feels like everything is stacked against her,” said Taylor’s attorney, Kristina Lyke.

Taylor started dating Forbes six years ago while he was at Sexton High School. There, he and teammate Denzel Valentine helped win back-to-back state championships in 2011 and 2012. Forbes graduated in 2012; Taylor is a 2010 graduate of Eastern High School.

Their boys are 4 and 1.

“My kids have been everything to me. They’re my life. I wake up, and that’s what I do. They come first,” Taylor said in an interview last month in the small Colonial Village home she rents.

Forbes, in an emailed statement, said he was disappointed Taylor is speaking publicly about a "very private matter." He cited concerns about her drinking, depression and parenting skills. In June, he flew the kids to Texas to live with him, a move she protested.

"After returning home to San Antonio, our children are again thriving," Forbes said in the statement. "I am hopeful that Raelynn will begin to focus on and resolve her personal issues so that she can become a better parent."

Taylor moved to San Antonio

Carter, 4, was born in Lansing while Forbes was traveling overseas with Cleveland State University's basketball team. Forbes has cited his son’s birth as one of the reasons he asked to transfer to MSU in 2014 for his junior and senior years.

He signed with the Spurs in July 2016 and was living in San Antonio when son Leo was born last December. Forbes flew to Lansing for his birth.

When Leo was just a week old, Taylor moved with her sons to San Antonio to live with Forbes to try to make their family work. She said the couple had broken up numerous times during her pregnancy.

The effort failed.

A bitter breakup followed in March, and Taylor moved back to Michigan with their infant son, Leo. Carter came back a few weeks later with his paternal grandmother.

In June, the couple tried but failed to reconcile while Forbes visited Lansing. At the end of his visit, Taylor said Forbes told her he was taking the boys to see their grandparents. Instead he flew with them back to San Antonio, where they have remained. Leo was just 6 months old at the time.

Forbes called Taylor before he left with the children, according to his attorney, Stuart Shafer. But Taylor recalls it differently. She said Forbes didn't call to tell her where her sons were until he was back in San Antonio.

And while they were trying to work things out in June, Taylor said she received notice that Forbes had filed for full custody.

Forbes had every right to bring the boys back to San Antonio, Shafer said.

“He didn’t take the kids to San Antonio. The kids were already living in San Antonio. That was their home,” he said.

Police wouldn't return children

Taylor, who didn’t have a lawyer at the time, tried to get police to return the children to her, but there was no custody order outlining parental time to enforce. The couple had a vague joint custody agreement for their older child, established when she filed for public assistance while Forbes attended college, and no custody agreement for their baby.

Forbes has a live-in nanny in Texas and his mother, Sue Forbes, is helping.

Taylor has visited her children in Texas twice since June and has them here in Michigan over the Christmas holiday.

“Bryn’s spent months without seeing the kids. This is the norm to him so maybe he doesn’t feel the hurt that I’m going through and the pain,” Taylor said.

Both sides went to court to win full custody. A Friend of the Court investigator, Stacey Craig, said the geographic distance makes shared custody unfeasible. In July, she recommended that Forbes get custody though she expressed reservations about his schedule, which put him on the road about 60 days a year, according to her report.

The investigator recommended parenting time for Taylor in the summer, other school breaks and on some weekends. She also recommended Forbes pay $723 a month in child support, using a formula that considers both incomes. That recommendation hasn't gone into effect.

The recommendations are now before a Friend of Court referee in a hearing that’s expected to spill into next year. The referee will make a ruling. If challenged by either party, it goes to the judge.

Lyke said the court has accommodated Forbes’ basketball schedule. Frequent delays in the referee hearing, which began in September, are due to scheduling around basketball games and practices, she said.

Forbes is also allowed to join the hearing by telephone. In the meantime, Taylor has to arrange for time off work to be there in person. It doesn’t feel even-handed, Lyke argues.

Shafer disagreed. He said the process is being dragged out by Lyke's detailed questioning of witnesses. He said he’s offered to skip the referee hearing and go directly before the judge.

He also said it’s important that the Friend of the Court investigator, in deciding the kids would be better off in Texas, cited the higher standard of “clear and convincing” evidence rather than “preponderance of evidence.”

“It wasn’t even close,” Shafer said.

Frequent moves

One of the concerns raised about Taylor is that she moves frequently, 10 times since her older son was born. But she and her attorney argue that’s driven in part by her lack of resources. She hasn’t received child support, although Forbes paid for day care when she had the kids.

“They’re using my weaknesses against me to win this case,” Taylor said.

She now rents a comfortable, clean home and holds down a steady job, her attorney, Lyke, points out.

Taylor’s drinking and partying behavior has been raised as an issue from posts she has made on Facebook bragging about her ability to consume alcohol. A friend of the couple who is Carter’s godmother said in a court filing that she was concerned about the children because of Taylor’s drinking and depression.

Taylor told the Friend of the Court investigator that she only drinks on weekends and it hasn’t interfered with her parenting. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression, she said, but has recovered.

She also pointed out that both she and Forbes have drank too much at times. But Shafer said that was when Forbes was in college.

“He’s got a job, and his job depends on him being physically OK … He minds his p’s and q’s,” Shafer said.

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In court documents, Forbes’ father, Brandon Forbes, cited several instances where his grandchildren lacked food, proper clothing or a car seat. Lyke said others testifying before a referee say Taylor has good parenting skills.

“She’s a good mother. She’s got a lot of perseverance,” Lyke said.

Lesson in the case

Lyke said one of the lessons of the case is that unmarried parents need to have a clear custody order that protects them as parents. She said the custody agreement Forbes and Taylor have for their older son was written by Shafer, Forbes' attorney.

Shafer said the order worked for the couple at the time as they agreed to decide parenting time as needed. He said it was triggered by the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office when Taylor applied for assistance. Taylor said she received food assistance when Carter was a baby. No child support was ordered at the time because Forbes was in college.

Taylor argues that she’s been the primary parent, often caring for the children by herself while Forbes concentrated on his basketball career and having fun.

“He wanted the best of both worlds. He wanted his family, and then he wanted his time to party,” she said.

Taylor said she does not want to move to Texas to be closer to her kids because Michigan is her home and where her older son has spent most of his life. Also, she said Texas holds bad memories for her.

Taylor said she doesn’t want her kids growing up with a nanny instead of their mom.

“I want them back. I feel they should be with me. I’m not saying that Bryn should not have any parenting time with them, but they need both parents,” she said.

Judy Putnam is a reporter with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @judyputnam.