Brody Dalle could face jail time after being found guilty of contempt in bitter custody battle with Josh Homme

Brody D
(Image credit: Simone Joyner/Getty Images))

Brody Dalle, leader of LA punks The Distillers, could face jail time after being convicted of one count of criminal contempt in her on-going and increasingly bitter custody battle with her former husband Josh Homme, frontman of Queens Of The Stone Age.

On November 19, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff found Dalle guilty of violating a September 1 court order when she didn’t deliver the couple’s 5-year-son Wolf to Homme as expected on September 3. Dalle will be sentenced on November 30.

Once considered alt. rock’s premier ‘power couple’, the relationship between Homme and Dalle has soured since their 2019 separation. Dalle took out a restraining order in 2019 after accusing Homme of head-butting her at her new residence. Months later, Homme requested a similar order, claiming that Dalle has tried to provoke him into violating this order in order to get him arrested.

The contempt trial is the latest episode in this saga: in previous court hearings, Judge Riff ruled that there must be court-appointed monitors in each parent’s home during custody visits, and dismissed restraining orders the two boys sought to impose upon their father. The couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Camille, succeed with her application for a restraining order against her father in September.

Dalle’s lawyer also accused Homme of “emotional mind games” with the children, and claimed the Queens man of punching Dalle’s car, calling her names, and allegedly threatening the life of Dalle’s boyfriend Gunner Foxx.

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.