Lawyer for King’s manager rebuts embezzlement claim
The lawyer for B.B. King’s longtime manager denies that his client embezzled more than $1 million from the musician during his dying days.
Las Vegas attorney Brent Bryson said King’s manager, LaVerne Toney, transferred the money into King’s trust account after his death.
“All monies are accounted for, and Ms. Toney has not misappropriated any funds,” Bryson said Friday.
King, whose legal name is Riley B. King, died May 14 at age 89 in his Las Vegas home while in hospice care.
Four of King’s daughters are objecting to Toney’s appointment as personal representative of King’s estate. In a document filed this week, the daughters claim Toney should be disqualified because of conflicts of interest and the alleged embezzlement.
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,” Drohobyczer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday.
District Judge Gloria Sturman has scheduled a June 25 hearing in the probate case.
Bryson said Toney and the estate are looking forward to having their day in court, “where all these rumors and innuendos will finally be put to rest.” The lawyer said Toney always has acted in King’s best interest.
“Ms. Toney should be appointed as executor and special administrator, as she is the person who is most qualified to be in that position,” Bryson said. “More importantly, she is the person that Mr. King designated in writing to be in that position.”
Las Vegas attorney Arthur Williams said he drafted King’s will in 2007, and the document made Toney the executor.
“He probably trusted her more than anybody else in the world,” Williams said Friday.
Toney had worked for King for nearly 40 years.
“He had complete reliance and faith in her,” Williams said.
The lawyer said King reiterated his position regarding Toney’s role as executor “a thousand times” and never wavered.
“We had talked about the will and the trust repeatedly over a number of years,” Williams said.
He said he knows of no other will drafted after 2007. King’s daughters claim another valid will exists although they have not located it.
Williams said King wanted some of his assets to go to his children and grandchildren, but he wanted most of them to go to his great-grandchildren for their education.
In objecting to Toney’s appointment as personal representative of the estate, the daughters claim numerous people have been given access to their father’s residence since his death and have removed personal property, including his collection of guitars named “Lucille.”
Bryson said Toney has placed multiple guitars in a private vault for safekeeping. She also arranged for the contents of King’s home, garage, business office and storage facilities to be videotaped.
In addition, Bryson said, Toney hired private security to patrol the outside of King’s home 24 hours a day to safeguard the memorabilia it contains.
“She’s doing this to protect Mr. King’s estate and the legacy of Mr. King,” the lawyer said.
Drohobyczer said King’s daughters recently hired Florida attorney Benjamin Crump to take an independent look at King’s death and the handling of his finances.
Crump gained national prominence when he represented the family of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager fatally shot by a neighborhood watch organizer in 2012. Crump also represented the family of Michael Brown, who was fatally shot last year by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
Amid allegations that King had been poisoned, the Clark County coroner’s office took jurisdiction of the body and performed an autopsy. The coroner has said he has no evidence that the allegations will be substantiated, but the office is waiting for toxicology reports.
Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer
