Kelly Rutherford can't yet bring children back to US

A court order that granted actress Kelly Rutherford temporary custody of her children to allow her to bring them back to Los Angeles from Monaco was halted Thursday.

Judge Maren E. Nelson, who presides over family law courts in Los Angeles, halted a ruling by another judge who expressed concerns that Rutherford's former husband violated terms of a 2013 custody order that allowed the children to live abroad.

Rutherford, who starred in "Melrose Place" and "Gossip Girl," has accused ex-husband Daniel Giersch of preventing her from seeing their children, which he denies. But a summary of a hearing where Rutherford got custody last week didn't specify how Giersch may have violated the 2013 order.

His lawyer, Fahi Takesh Hallin, filed documents showing that a Monaco court now has jurisdiction over the children and claimed that Rutherford "made fraudulent statements, and lied and made misrepresentations by omission" to gain the temporary custody order.

A call to Rutherford's attorney, David J. Glass, was not immediately returned Friday.

Nelson's ruling prevents Rutherford from taking custody of her son and daughter until after judges in Monaco and Los Angeles confer about the case. That conversation is scheduled to take place June 11.

Giersch and Rutherford married in 2006 and filed for divorce in Los Angeles two years later. They were granted a divorce in July 2010 and continued to fight over custody until the 2013 order allowed Giersch to keep the children abroad.

Rutherford also has accused her ex-husband of trying to have a Monaco court change their citizenship. Giersch's filing states that the Monaco court does not have the authority to do that, and no request to alter the children's dual U.S.-German citizenship has been made.

Giersch was born in Germany.