C.J.: Family matters land HGTV's Nicole Curtis in court

Nicole Curtis, the host of "Rehab Addict," challenges the report of an incident Sunday at the St. Paul home of her youngest child's father, Shane Maguire, one of the Gold Guys.

Last week the Detroit News, citing Oakland County Circuit Court records, reported that Curtis is currently in a bitter custody fight with Maguire, father of her 15-month-old son, and that she is also accused of threatening to harm her mother.

Monday after having a conference call with Curtis and her manager, Robert Flutie, I called Maguire's Bloomfield Hills, Mich., attorney Gerald Cavellier to confirm that Shane is one of the Gold Guys.

When I asked Cavellier if there was anything new, he said, "More drama over the weekend with Nicole calling the police and the police telling her to go home. She's in Minneapolis now."

Asked where Curtis was when police told her to go home, Cavellier said, "At [Maguire's] house late at night trying to retrieve the child in the middle of the night. He lives in St. Paul. I don't know if [St. Paul police filed a report] or it was just a run sheet. It was last night."

I made another call to Curtis to ask if Cavellier was right about that incident. "No," said Curtis. "That's not true."

St. Paul Police's media coordinator Steve Linders could find no record of a Sunday incident. However, Linders said he did have a police report identifying Maguire as the victim of harassment in July. "Apparently Mr. Maguire was trying to catch a flight home from Detroit and when he arrived at the airport he was informed someone had canceled his flight," said Linders. "He speculated on who it might be [who did it] but we can't prove who it was."

The Detroit News story was the talk of Michigan over the weekend. Knowing how protective Curtis is about her two sons, I tweeted her a question about her mother: What the devil is going on when you start scaring your Mom, allegedly?

Curtis responded, "Not a chance." I took that as a "no comment" until she sent me copies of complimentary e-mails we exchanged in 2012. How organized must Curtis be to have an e-mail from 2012?

Via e-mail Curtis told me she was not going to "explain" her personal life. "All is fair when I'm attacked, but these situations involve my children. They don't deserve to be written about in tabloids."

I was asking about her mother, a Michigan resident, who requested a personal protection order last month, because her celebrity daughter was "screaming, harassing and threatening her," according to the Detroit News.

During the conference call with her and her manager, Curtis said she wanted to talk about business matters. "I was just hoping my family would be respected and kept out of all this, "she said.

That's hard to do when there are court documents related to family members.

"My family is being dragged through the mud right now, C.J.," said Curtis. "Consider that I have children. I'm still a member of this community and it's a personal matter. If I followed you around all day or anyone else, I am sure there is a lot that goes on that's personal."

Could be, but that's different from when family issues become legal matters.

Curtis also remains miffed that, according to an e-mail, "the last time you wrote about me was when you ridiculed me about being robbed … with my baby in the truck:( "

Ahh, I like Curtis, but I did not ridicule her. I merely conveyed what police said after the HGTV star went on Facebook claiming she had been victim of an "attempted carjacking" while her baby was in the car. The Detroit Free Press reported another circumstance. Quoting the Detroit PD, the Freep said the criminal had snatched her purse through her vehicle's open window.

"It wasn't just a purse snatching," Curtis said in our conference call. "I detail that in my book. It was a very hurtful and vulnerable time for me. That is definitely part of the book."

The book is her upcoming memoir, "Better than New," which she expects to be released this year.

Minneapolis media may handle Curtis' legal matters gently if she goes on a book tour, but Detroit and national media certainly won't.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show" and "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.