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Nasty Divorce

Mel B’s Ex Attempts To Shut Down Petition For Sealed Court Case

Stephen Belafonte says the ex Spice Girl is trying to control the media.

Stephen Belafonte has fired back this Tuesday morning against estranged wife Melanie Brown. While the former Spice Girl filed a petition to close all further cases to the public (in order to protect her children’s safety and privacy) Belafonte has claimed, via legal court documents, he does not support her decision.

Her objective “can be accomplished through less restrictive means,” read the documents. Since she did not meet all of the court’s requirements for a sealed case, her petition should be denied, according to Belafonte’s legal team, and documents should be available to the public as they would in any other case. Brown, 42, stated that her children would “suffer irreparable harm” if the courtroom records were not sealed, yet Belafonte’s legal team believes that is not the answer.

Say the court documents: “No basis exists for concluding that court records should be differentiated from courtroom proceedings, like divorce proceedings themselves, are presumptively open.”

Adds Belafonte’s team: “We believe that the public has an interest, in all civil cases, in observing and assessing the performance of its public judicial system, and that interest strongly supports a general right of access in ordinary civil cases.”The papers also suggest that Brown is choosing to ask for a closed case in order to prove her own point, now that she has made domestic violence allegations against Belafonte, 42.