Judge Vacates Councilmember Hakeem Brown’s Custody Battle
Councilmember Hakeem Brown has prevailed in a custody case filed by the maternal grandmother of his young son.
Sara Bunn filed the case in March of this year, when she sued for full guardianship. According to the family, she would have been happy with visitation rights.
Bunn is the mother of Brown’s ex-wife, Chana Brown, who was allegedly murdered by and ex-boyfriend in Florida in March of 2020. After her death, the child lived with his grandmother until a court gave Hakeem Brown custody.
According to Bunn’s family, the judge cited trauma that was being caused for the child by being involved in a custody battle, thus declaring the case vacated.
The child can regularly be seen laughing and cuddling with his dad during city council meetings on Zoom.
In Bunn’s initial filing, she claimed that Brown had withheld contact between her and the child after she spoke to Open Vallejo for a story about his criminal past (“Domestic violence bordering on torture,” October 2020). Bunn said that she and her grandson “have shared a close and loving relationship since his birth” and that it was causing the boy emotional harm to have that contact removed.
Bunn further alleged that Brown had “very sporadic contact” with his son until he was two years old, and then “no contact– not a phone call, a letter, a card, gift, text message, child support, or acknowledgement of any sort.”
In his court response, Brown said that Chana had “taken the child from him, limited his contact, secreted the child from him, and avoided service of process when he attempted to obtain a dissolution of marriage and timesharing with the child.”
Bunn claims that Chana avoided Brown because he allegedly “threatened to kill” her if she didn’t drop the criminal charges against him stemming from her alleged abuse.
Brown pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor offense of disobeying a stay-away order placed by Chana.
Bunn is reportedly “devastated” at the court’s decision.
Hakeem Brown did not respond to a request for comment.
This story will be updated as more information comes in.
