Jesse James, motorcycle builder, host of TV shows such as “Monster Garage” and husband of Sandra Bullock, won the latest custody battle between he and his ex-wife, Janine Lindemulder, over their five-year-old daughter, Sunny. Lindemulder is a former adult film star and is still working in the adult entertainment industry – although apparently not in front of the cameras.

A California judge denied Lindemulder’s request for extended custody of Sunny. Lindemulder, a former adult film star, sought to expand her current visitation to include overnight stays. Her visitation is still restricted to daytime hours only.

James took full custody of Sunny earlier this year when Lindemulder was sentenced to federal prison for tax law violations. She was released from prison this summer but has been required to live in a halfway house until recently.

While in the halfway house, Lindemulder met and married Jeremy Aikman, a convicted felon. Aikman was finishing up a four year sentence for being a felon in possession of a weapon.

After she was released from the halfway house, the family court commissioner granted Lindemulder daytime weekend visitation rights on the condition that she not consume any drugs or alcohol and that she keep Sunny away from Aikman. Then, more recently, Lindemulder requested the now-denied overnight visitation as well.

Despite James’ protests, the court did grant Lindemulder the ability to keep Sunny overnight on Christmas Eve. She must return Sunny to James by noon on Christmas.

In my experience, there is a high likelihood that the court’s custody decision is not based entirely on Lindemulder’s failure to pay income taxes and six months in prison. The commissioner must determine what custody arrangement is in the best interests of the child. The drug and alcohol abstinence conditions for visitation lead me to believe that Lindemulder has (or had) a drug and/or alcohol dependency – which addiction forms the basis for James’ allegations that she is unfit to make decisions for the child or have unsupervised, overnight visitation.

Lindemulder is scheduled to appear for a hearing next week on a possible violation of the terms of her supervised release, relating to her tax violation sentence.