Ariel Winter's Sister Continues Temporary Custody
The real-life drama for Modern Family's Ariel Winter continues as a judge granted temporary custody to continue with Winter's sister Shanelle Gray, ET has learned.
This news follows today's objection filed by Winter's dad Glenn Workman, stating that he is "more than capable of caring for Ariel in every way."
Winter's brother, Jimmy Workman, also wrote a declaration, pleading with the court system and the Department of Children and Family Services to help his family get back together.
"I have NEVER seen any physical or emotional abuse in the home of my parents regarding Ariel," Jimmy wrote in his declaration. "I have seen normal mother and daughter arguments and banter back and forth but nothing more. Counseling was set up for [Ariel's mom] Chrisoula and Ariel to get to the root of their issues and corrected."
VIDEO: Ariel Winter's Mom Speaks
In October, temporary guardianship of Ariel was granted to Shanelle after court documents were filed, claiming that Ariel "has been the victim of ongoing physical abuse (slapping, hitting, pushing) and emotional abuse (vile name calling, personal insults about minor and minor's height, attempts to 'sexualize' minor, deprivation of food, etc.) for an extended period of time by the minor's mother [Chrisoula 'Crystal' Workman]..."
Crystal denies the allegations, telling ET today, "I love my daughter. I want to reunite our family. All allegations are false. Please pray for my family."
Later, Crystal and Glenn released this joint statment, saying, "We want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. We feel that today was a small victory for our family. We are one step closer to reuniting with our daughter and we were both in court today to let her know we love her and will always be there for her."
Even the judge today agreed that reunification is so important for a family and while Ariel is still temporarily with her sister for now, we remain hopeful that she will be home soon."
The family is next due in court on December 12.