NEW YORK -- The judge in the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow child custody case Monday voiced doubts that the 'post-modern' family, with or without therapy, can withstand a father sleeping with his children's adopted sister.
Judge Elliott Wilk, expressing his views during direct questioning of witnesses, appeared troubled several times Monday with the 57-year-old filmmaker's affair with 22-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow's adopted daughter.
Revelation of the affair sparked the bitter battle for custody of the couple's three children and has become a significant factor in the five- week non-jury trial.
Wilk interjected his views after an expert witness, psychologist Jaime Inclan, said today's definition of the post-modern family could accommodate unconventional arrangements outside the limits of what older generations experienced, often, however, only with the help of therapy.
'You've gone through the post-modern structure of the family, but we're not yet at the point of sleeping with our child's sister,' Justice Elliott Wilk said, referring to Allen's affair with Previn.
Allen is seeking sole custody of his two adopted children with Farrow, 7-year-old daughter, Dylan, and 15-year-old son Moses, and the couple's biological child, Satchel, 5.
A countersuit by Farrow, 48, alleges that Allen abused Dylan and therefore is not a fit father.
Inclan testified that family constancy is important for children because it gives them the sense that 'if something is there one day, it should be there the next day.'
'What happens to that constancy when what used to be the sister become's Daddy's girlfriend?' the judge asked.
Inclan said he doesn't share the judge's 'assumption' that parents would 'force' such a relationship on a child through therapy.
Wilk asked Inclan if such a family can be 'repaired.'
'Can it be, will it be -- that's the crystal-ball question,' Inclan said.
Earlier, Dr. Anne Meltzer, a sex abuse expert who, like Inclan, testified for Allen, said a video tape made by Farrow of Dylan's account of being sexually molested by Allen was 'flawed' because it was made by 'a person who was biased, not an objective professional interviewer. '
Meltzer, a psychologist who has testified at more than 200 trials, said the videotape was the first in her experience ever produced by a parent.
Farrow made the tape of Dylan shortly after the alleged incident took place last August.
Meltzer also said it was 'unusual' for a child to talk about molestation soon after it occurrs.
'They generally feel badly about it and they are told not to tell. It often results in delayed disclosure,' she said.
Wilk, as he has often done during the trial, asked the witness several questions, including whether she thought Dylan might have made up the account because that is what she thought her mother wanted to hear.
'I think that's possible,' Meltzer said.
Wilk also asked if the affect of Allen's affair with Previn on Previn's younger siblings could be considered a form of child abuse.
'I would not define that as child abuse,' Meltzer said, adding however that she would call it 'bad judgement.'
Allen, 57, has been cleared of the sex abuse charges by a panel of experts, but the case it still under review by Connecticut authorities.
Farrow took the stand briefly Monday to question the panel's findings.