Another bombshell's just gone off in the battle over Mr. Dynamite's estate.
A trustee accused of siphoning at least $350,000 of James Brown's money quit his position overseeing the late music man's estate and handed over a check for the disputed sum at a court hearing in South Carolina.
Coexecutor David Cannon tendered his resignation during a four-hour proceeding Friday, after lawyers assigned by the court as special administrators to help sort out Brown's will accused Cannon of misappropriating funds.
The appointees, Adele Pope and Robert Buchanan, filed a motion last Tuesday asking Circuit Judge Jack Early to sack the trustee, claiming that at least two transactions Cannon made in Brown's name erroneously went to Cannon's firm.
According to court documents obtained by the Augusta Chronicle, Universal Music issued a $900,000 check to the funk icon in July 2006, which Cannon subsequently deposited into the James Brown Irrevocable Trust.
But what caught the administrators' attention were several questionable debits—one for $50,000 on Dec. 12 and another for $350,000 on Dec. 28, three days after Brown died from heart failure at age 73—which Cannon then deposited in his company's account. (The latter check was actually dated Dec. 22 but the transaction wasn't registered until days later).
There was also a separate $744,000 sum Brown paid to another of Cannon's business entities, Seventh Decade Productions, in 2006.
In requesting to dismiss Cannon, Pope and Buchanan wrote that they "believe that one or more of the above transactions may be a serious breach of trust."
Their petition additionally sought the ouster of Cannon's coexecutors, Alford Bradley and Brown's longtime adviser and lawyer Buddy Dallas, citing unspecified allegations by the "Sex Machine" singer's children that those trustees also mishandled Brown's assets.
The special administrators want the trio to fork over any documents related to the estate's financial dealings and the various trusts, including one set aside for his grandchildren's education and another called the James Brown I Feel Good Trust, which the entertainer established to aid needy children.
Cannon's resignation pleased Louis Levenson, an Atlanta attorney representing five of Brown's adult children and six of his grandchildren, who has been trying to track down where all the money went.
"When we—i.e., the children and grandchildren—got started, the trio were accusing them of being greedy and making frivolous claims," said the legal eagle. "It's now apparent that their claims were not frivolous because Mr. Cannon has resigned amid scandal and controversy and Mr. Dallas and Mr. Bradley are on the verge of being removed."
That's not the only problem plaguing the estate.
Charles Reid, the Georgia funeral director who preserved Brown's body for three months until the music icon was finally interred in March, has filed a complaint alleging the trustees failed to pay $18,000 in funeral charges.
Neither Cannon, who has an unlisted telephone number, not Bradley could be reached for comment.
For his part, Dallas had little to say about his associate's resignation, except that he expected to continue in his own role as trustee.
"I haven't handled any of Mr. Brown's financial affairs," the Augusta-based attorney told E! Online.
But Levenson said that wasn't true and that Dallas had been "involved in financial matters" with Cannon all along.
"I'd like to see him removed and independent and responsible fiduciaries investigate the estate," Levenson said.
Dallas is still sorting out claims to Brown's estate by at least 14 people who say they were fathered by Brown out of wedlock and are seeking a DNA test to prove it.
He says "several" of those have already tested negative and results for others remain pending. Within the past week, Dallas said, a woman from Macon, Georgia, and another from Vancouver, British Columbia, have stepped forward claming to have been sired by Brown.
"I'm sure we'll work cooperatively to handle all these matters when they come forward," Dallas said.
As it stands, the Chronicle identified at least one woman with matching genes, a 45-year-old retired flight attendant and teacher from Houston named LaRhonda Petitt, whose mother met the Soul Man at a concert in the 1960s and became his on-the-road girlfriend.
Of course, there might not be much of the estate to go around.
"There's always a concern when you have a protracted case and you have a lot of lawyers and litigation fees," Levenson told E! Online. "But it's also correct that the primary motivation is not to achieve a payday but for the children and grandchildren to understand how their father's estate has been handled over the last seven years."
The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for Sept. 24.