Rusty Sneiderman's parents seek contact with grandchildren - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

The parents of a man gunned down outside of a Dunwoody day care say they've been cut off from seeing their grandchildren.

Rusty Sneiderman's parents are appealing to the court to have contact with their 6- and 3-year-old grandchildren. They are also asking the Division of Family and Children Services to perform "immediate and periodic welfare checks" on the children.

In a court motion filed in Fulton County Superior Court, the grandparents said that ever since Rusty's widow, Andrea Sneiderman, has been charged in connection with her husband's death, their weekly Skype calls with the kids have been discontinued. The motion says the move "shows her willingness to continue to use the children as pawns."

The family of Rusty Sneiderman already has a standing petition to take custody of the children away from their mother.

Andrea Sneiderman was charged last Thursday on eight counts, including malice murder and criminal attempt to commit murder.

Andrea's former boss, Hemy Neuman, was convicted earlier this year of murdering Rusty Sneiderman in November 2010.

During Neuman's trial, his attorneys claimed that he was having an affair with Andrea Sneiderman. Andrea Sneiderman has denied those charges.

Family law expert and attorney Corey Stern says with a custody fight, dueling wrongful death and slander lawsuits -- and the criminal charges -- there's so much all going on at once.

"In most cases you can sort of see a finish line, but in this case it's hard to see the finish line because there's about five or six different races taking place at the exact same time," said Stern.

The motion filed by the Sneidermans calls the decision to stop the weekly Skype interviews "morally repugnant and not in the best interest of the children."

Stern says it's the court's job to make sure the young children don't become a pawn in a larger fight.

"The court should, and probably will, be an impartial, unemotional but objective barometer for what is in the children's best interest and that is always going to be the standard for what happens to the kids," said Stern.

Attorneys for both sides declined to comment about the case.