Houston (AP)--A stoic 17-year-old Dominique Moceanu, her father crying beside her, entered the adult world Wednesday as a Houston judge approved the Olympic gymnast's request for legal independence from her parents.
In a 20-minute hearing-stalled briefly when Moceanu's father broke into tears-State District Judge John D. Montgomery approved the high school senior's request and declared her a legal adult.
"I sincerely wish you all the best of luck," Montgomery told Moceanu and her parents, Dumitru and Moceanu. "It's not a pleasant situation to come down to a court like this, since the three of you probaby would rather be just about anywhere else doing something else than standing her today."
Dumitru Moceanu had to be asked three times if he agreed with the settlement. With tears in his eyes, he finally uttered a low "Yes" and signed the document.
"This wasn't very easy for me," Moceanu, and Olympic gold medalist in 1996, said afterward. "This was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It was something I felt I had to do."
She declined to take questions from reporters but said no longer will live in her parents' Houston-area home.
"This is a great day, but a sad day," she said. "I want to get one thing straight: I'm not living at home, I'm not going back home."
Instead, she will remain at her newly rented apartmenet where she moved after running away from her parents more than a week ago. Frustrated over unanswered questions she had about her earnings and upset after her father threatened to have a Romanian coach deported, she quickly filed for the right to be an adult. She also had a restraining order slapped on her parents, whom she believed had squandered her earnings.
The settlement approved Wednesday lifts the restraining order. Now, as an adult, she legally can inquire about what has happened to her money.
In her initial petition to the court, she claimed earnings in her trust fund bankrolled unauthorized risky investments and a $4 million gym bearing her name.
It's not known how much was in the trust or how much has been spent. Her step into adulthood legally gives her the right to ask for records from her parents.
But the trust is structured so even with the new adult declaration, it remains out of her hand until she is 35. However, whatever she earns from now on is hers, Roy W. Moore, her lawyer, said.
Moore would not answer additional questions about his client's legal plans.
Last week, Moceanu's parents initially challenged their daughter's request for adult status. But late Tuesday, after meeting wit her for a deposition, they decided to with-draw their opposition.
Her parents had contended in court documents that their daughter's coaches and a friend had convinced her to flee. The gymnast insisted no one influenced her, saying she simply wanted answers about how the money she earned in her seven-year career was being spent.
