Danielle Bregoli’s father, Ira Peskowitz, has spoken about his battle to gain custody of his daughter in order to save her from a ‘downward spiral’.
The 14-year-old, well known as ‘Cash Me Ousside’ girl, appeared on the Dr. Phil show and was presented as a demon child who victimised her mother, however Ira has revealed the other side to the story.
Ira, a police officer in Florida, has been paying child support for the last 13 years whilst constantly battling with Danielle’s mother Barbara for more involvement in his daughter’s life.
Since Danielle appeared on the TV show, her mother has taken her from Florida to Los Angeles, and signed her up to the same agent as singer Pitbull, with apparent hopes for a reality TV career.
Ira’s close friend and representative Elliot Cohen said to UNILAD:
This isn’t something new for Ira, a lot of people are talking about how he’s some Johnny-come-lately dad. Ira’s been trying to help Danielle and get back into her life for years, long before Dr. Phil.
Danielle’s mother has really blocked this at every turn, she’s really been the obstacle for Danielle getting the help she wants.
If he has to go to court, he’ll do it, but this isn’t new for him. He’s been paying child support for 13 years, it’s just new to everyone else because of Dr. Phil.
During the interview, Elliot expressed how Ira’s worst fear for Danielle is ‘that no one steps in and stops her spiralling out-of-control lifestyle that involved hanging around with dangerous people, documenting every dysfunctional moment of her life on social media, this isn’t how you raise a daughter, but this is how Danielle’s mother is choosing to raise her daughter’.
Ira’s mother has full custody of her daughter, which means that it is easy for her to block Ira from having contact, despite his numerous attempts to organised supervised visits.
Instead of using Ira’s insurance to get therapy and help for Danielle’s mental health, her mother is bringing her ‘Hollywood, agents, Instagram fights, dysfunction, and hanging out with dangerous people’.
Elliot said:
Ira has not been able to reach his daughter for the years that he has been trying. He’s going to court now because it’s the last resort. This is hopefully the move that will get him some influence in his daughter’s life and begin the process of saving her from a destructive and incredibly dangerous lifestyle her mother has put her in.
Over the years they have communicated, they’ve had lunches. Ira has suggested supervised visitation because Danielle’s mother wouldn’t allow the two of them to be alone.
So Ira tried to organise some supervised visitation. They had a date and time lined up, and then Danielle’s mother prevented her from showing up.
In a Facebook Live video, Ira said:
It’s a tough time right now, but the outcome will be amazing.
I don’t know if you’re watching Danielle, I’m not going to give you the finger like you gave me, I’m not going to jump up and down and curse, because I’m not going to get rewarded for bad behaviour and its important to understand that your behaviour is a model for other kid’s behaviour.
I hope Danielle betters herself, becomes an asset to the community, gets education, understands what it’s like to have a family, understand what love it about, understand that people do care for her,
Ira spoke of the plights of parental alienation, exploiting children, and ensured that ‘the truth will come out in the courts’.
Elliot made it clear that Ira was not only fighting his own battle, but that of all non-custodial parents trying to get a say in their children’s lives.
The way the system works, he explained how much control the custodial parent has, which has caused a lot of difficulty in Ira’s case.
Elliot said:
If any good comes from this, it should be shedding a light on how hard it is for a non-custodial parent to try to have some sort of influence on their child’s life when they see things going horribly wrong. Also how it’s not easy to go through the courts. One of the huge obstacles is cost.
Danielle has expressed an interest in getting to know her father. They have the beginnings of what could be a normal relationship between the two, but he biggest obstacle is her mother.
It would be okay in some circumstances if the mother didn’t want the father involved if he was some sort of horrible influence, but Ira is a man who has got a good job, he’s got a family, he’s got two kids, he’s got a good nuclear family that he wants Danielle to be a part of.
Ira started a GoFundMe page to pay for the court battle to try and get custody of Danielle and help her, which has raised $2,988 so far.
Whatever money he collects through the page that don’t get used specifically for helping Danielle, it will be given to charities which support non-custodial parents.
Elliot ended:
If Ira was in it for the money, starting a GoFundMe account is not the way to get rich. If he was in it for the money, he would be doing what Danielle’s mother is doing. He’d be grabbing her, taking her to LA, trying to cash in on her Internet fame.
Let’s hope this situation comes to a close with all parties happy.
