B.B. King’s family says manager stole $1 million from late musician
Four daughters of blues legend B.B. King are objecting to the appointment of his longtime manager as personal representative of his estate.
In a document filed this week, the daughters claim LaVerne Toney should be disqualified because of conflicts of interest and alleged embezzlement of more than $1 million from their father.
“Not only did she improperly misappropriate over a million dollars as he lay incapacitated, secluded from any rational actor, family, or anyone outside of Ms. Toney’s influence; but his residence has been raided by associates not affiliated with the estate, heirs, or family,” according to the document.
Toney’s lawyer, Brent Bryson, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Court information officer Mary Ann Price said District Judge Gloria Sturman has scheduled a hearing on the matter for June 22.
Attorney Larissa Drohobyczer represents the four daughters: Patty King, Karen Williams, Rita Washington and Barbara Winfree.
“Their only goal right now is to get Toney out,” the lawyer said Thursday.
Patty King reported the theft of $1 million from her father’s accounts to Las Vegas police on June 1. The report was included as an exhibit in the document filed by the daughters in the probate case.
B.B. King, whose legal name was Riley B. King, died May 14 at age 89 in his Las Vegas home.
After Patty King and Williams accused Toney and another aide of poisoning their father, the Clark County coroner’s office took jurisdiction of the body and performed an autopsy.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman said the coroner’s office has not yet received toxicology reports.
Bryson has called the allegations “baseless and unfounded.”
In the document filed this week, the four daughters continue to question the medical care their father received.
“My clients have reasonable suspicion as to his cause of death since they were alienated from Mr. King during his final days,” Drohobyczer wrote.
The daughters are requesting appointment of a neutral third party as personal representative of the musician’s estate.
“They’re not fighting over money,” Drohobyczer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “They’re fighting over the executor, because they don’t trust her.”
In objecting to Toney’s appointment, the daughters claim numerous people have been given access to their father’s residence since his death and have removed personal property with Toney’s authorization.
“Ms. Toney’s conversion of the decedent’s liquid assets, the removal of decedent’s personal property (including his collection of custom nine guitars, famously named by the decedent ‘Lucille,’ his clothing worn on stage, and other memorabilia with unknown value) is entirely improper and should not be tolerated,” Drohobyczer wrote.
The document also claims Toney has allowed valuable royalties to go uncollected and hired Myron Johnson as her primary assistant to handle King’s assets, although Johnson “has been evading taxes for 10 years.”
According to the document, Toney and Bryson have “threatened the commencement of legal action” because of the daughters’ inquiries, “which is not only vengeful but evidence of misconduct, foul play, and conflicts of interest.”
Attached to the document is a May 26 letter from Bryson to Drohobyczer, which states, “The innuendo and falsities asserted by you and your clients are without merit and there will be a time rapidly occurring where all associated with their dissemination will be held legally accountable.”
According to the document, the daughters do not object to admitting their father’s will to probate but reserve the right to contest its validity. They believe another valid will exists, “but have yet to locate it due to gross errors and negligence on the parts of Mr. King’s previous counsel.”
Contact Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow @CarriGeer on Twitter.
