Cooper's husband seeks autopsy report

Bradley Cooper's attorneys are asking a judge to order prosecutors to release a report on Nancy Cooper's autopsy.

The lawyers filed the motion and several others today in advance of a custody hearing set for Friday. Nancy Cooper's father and sister received emergency custody of the couple's two daughters last week after convincing a judge that Bradley Cooper may be mentally unstable and may pose a danger to the children.

His attorneys argue that the autopsy report is critical to challenge the "unsubstantiated insinuations that he played a role in [Nancy] Cooper's death."

On Friday, Nancy Cooper's family will ask a judge to extend their custody of Bella, 4, and Katie, 2. Bradley Cooper is fighting to keep custody of the girls.

Bradley Cooper's attorneys, Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum, say that they have not been informed about Nancy Cooper's cause of death and why it has been classified as a homicide.

The lawyers also have asked that Alice Stubbs, the attorney for Nancy Cooper's family, be removed from the case.

Before her death, Nancy Cooper retained Stubbs for help in negotiating a separation and custody arrangement with Bradley Cooper.

In their filing, Bradley Cooper's attorneys say that Stubbs' representation of Nancy Cooper's family to strip Bradley Cooper of his rights amounts to a full switch in her position and prejudices Bradley Cooper. They also say that Stubbs obtained information during those proceedings which should make her a witness in the current custody battle, as opposed to a representing counsel.

In particular, Kurtz and Blum say Stubbs has information about the woman with whom Bradley Cooper had a "one-time sexual liaison several years ago;" Nancy Cooper's relatives argued in their emergency custody petition that Bradley Cooper's extramarital affair contributed to him being an unfit parent.

Kurtz and Blum say their client's indiscretion, "especially in light of Ms. Cooper's own extramarital encounter, should have no bearing on Mr. Cooper's fitness as a parent."

They are also asking a judge to order Stubbs to share with Bradley Cooper statements his wife made to Stubbs before her death.

In a drafted separation agreement included as part of Kurtz and Blum's filing, Nancy Cooper had agreed to share custody with Bradley Cooper, who was to see the girls at least every other weekend and for two weeks during the summer. The parents were to remain jointly responsible for all major decisions regarding the children's development, education, health and welfare.

Both were to have agreed they were "fit and proper persons to have the care, custody and control of the minor children."

However, Bradley Cooper had granted his wife the right to return to Canada with the girls, and the couple had agreed to list their home for sale at a price of $370,000. The proceeds of that sale were to pay off the home's mortgage, the loan on Nancy Cooper's BMW X5, the balances on three credit cards and a loan against Bradley Cooper's 401k.

All remaining proceeds were to go to Nancy Cooper, as was the balance of Bradley Cooper's 401k. Bradley Cooper was to be solely responsible for all the couple's other debts at the time the agreement was signed.

Bradley Cooper was to have paid Nancy Cooper $2,100 a month in child support beginning May 1, 2008, and to cover Bella and Katie's tuition at a mutually agreed upon private school from kindergarten through high school.

The couple had divided up their marital property, with Bradley Cooper getting the washer and dryer, master bed, Bella's dresser, the coffeemaker and a 56-inch TV, while Nancy Cooper would get the dining room table and chairs, a treadmill, Bella's bed and armoire and the living room's flat-screen TV, among other items.

Nancy Cooper had forwarded the separation agreement to Bradley Cooper on April 18, but it remains unsigned.

Nancy Cooper, 34, was reported missing Saturday, July 12, from her home in Cary's Lochmere subdivision. Her husband told police she went jogging that morning and never returned. Her body was found two days later in a subdivision under development.

Police have not named a suspect in her killing.