Final 12 months, Brad Herman, a longtime behind-the-scenes movie star publicist, obtained reward from the household of Cindy Birdsong, an ailing former member of the Supremes. He was credited with serving to rescue her from what they described as a pal’s undue affect over her care and funds.
However now, Herman has been named in a petition filed by Ms. Birdsong’s son, who accuses him in courtroom paperwork of elder monetary abuse and misappropriation of their cash.
The son, Charles Hewlett, who was named conservator of his mom’s affairs, is looking for damages and the return of what his petition describes as misplaced funds.
The allegations come after months of litigation over who ought to management a conservatorship that oversaw the funds and medical choices of Birdsong, 84, who was as soon as a part of a Motown group that grew to become music royalty.
In the present day, Ms. Birdsong is unable to speak and is on a feeding tube after a sequence of strokes. She has been residing in wards and hospitals since 2021 and a decide lastly put Mr Hewlett in control of her affairs late final 12 months.
“Mr. Herman used his place of belief to benefit from Ms. Birdsong’s dependency and train care, custody and management over Ms. Birdsong’s property,” argues the petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom this month by Susan Geffen, Mr. Hewlett’s lawyer.
Herman defended his dealing with of Ms. Birdsong’s affairs in an interview on Friday, saying he’s “dedicated to making sure that Ms. Birdsong’s property. He mentioned he has an accountant reviewing Ms. Birdsong’s financial institution information and that’s “satisfied the books will probably be so as” earlier than the case is heard in June.
Years in the past, Herman mentioned, he stepped in to assist Birdsong on the request of relations who lived exterior of California. He mentioned Mr Hewlett on the time didn’t seem serious about interceding.
“If another person was caring for her, I wouldn’t have to be requested to assist,” he mentioned, later including that “on the finish of the day, all that issues is Cindy’s well-being and well-being.”
Birdsong was Supreme for almost a decade throughout a part of the group’s heyday, after changing Florence Ballard in 1967. She sang hits like “You Cannot Rush Love” and “Come See About Me” alongside Diana Ross and Mary Wilson, residing the glamorous lifetime of a Motown star. However her profession suffered a decline after she was lower from the group in 1976.
Her funds collapsed – which she attributed to a “unhealthy deal” with Motown Information – and she or he retreated from the highlight. She lived a lot of her final years in what family members described as an increasingly isolated life in a Los Angeles residence she shared with Rochelle Lander, a longtime pal with whom she started a Christian ministry.
In interviews final 12 months, Herman, Birdsong’s three brothers and a sister-in-law described their efforts to get Birdsong out of the residence, the place, the brothers mentioned, his well being gave the impression to be declining and Lander was not sharing details about his well-being.
The brothers signed papers granting Mr. Herman, who they mentioned was beneficial by mutual buddies, their energy of legal professional. In 2021, he orchestrated Ms. Birdsong’s elimination from the residence with the assistance of the Los Angeles police and a non-public paramedic service. With energy of legal professional, Herman additionally opened a checking account for Ms. Birdsong that was in each of their names, in response to courtroom paperwork, an association that Ms.’s relations would profit from.
(Ms. Lander, who didn’t conform to an interview, has defended her care in earlier conditions. She didn’t intervene within the authorized proceedings that adopted Ms. Birdsong’s elimination.)
Final Might, a 12 months and a half after Ms. Birdsong was transferred to a nursing dwelling, Mr. Herman signed as much as be Ms. Birdsong’s co-conservator alongside together with her brother, Ronald Birdsong.
However a Los Angeles decide requested county officers to take over after elevating issues about the best way her funds have been being managed. County officers identified greater than $190,000 twhich they are saying was taken from her checking account however doesn’t seem to have been meant for her care in nursing services.
The courtroom revoked Mr. Herman’s energy of legal professional, he withdrew his request to be named his conservator, and a county company, the Public Guardian’s Workplace, started supervising Ms. Birdsong’s affairs briefly till Mr. Hewlett was appointed final December.
In current courtroom hearings, Herman has had more and more tense interactions with Decide Lee R. Bogdanoff, who ordered him to supply an accounting of Mrs. Insurance coverage’s funds at dwelling.
In January, when Herman introduced Birdsong’s son with a examine for $71,000 in courtroom, Decide Bogdanoff questioned why the quantity was lower than Herman had beforehand reported. In courtroom, Herman attributed the distinction to “offsets and deductions.”
“You aren’t entitled to make any offsets and deductions,” Decide Bogdanoff responded. “It’s not your cash.”
Though Birdsong didn’t maintain important royalty rights, information point out that it obtained common funds — month-to-month checks starting from a number of hundred {dollars} to greater than $10,000 — from SoundExchange, which distributes funds to musicians.
The petition accuses Herman of creating “important withdrawals or transfers of cash from Ms. Birdsong’s account that weren’t used for her care.”
“We have been led to consider that Brad was holding the cash secure,” Melody Birdsong, Birdsong’s sister-in-law, mentioned in an interview.
Herman beforehand mentioned in interviews that at one level he was chargeable for paying Ms. Birdsong’s bills on the expert nursing services the place she lived. The petition doesn’t totally element the quantity Ms. Birdsong has incurred for her care since being faraway from the residence, however county officers instructed the courtroom final 12 months that she had an excellent stability of greater than $30,000 at a number of nursing services .
A Hollywood reporter profile 2022 described Mr. Herman as somebody who has “smoothed the tough edges” of Hollywood’s elite for many years, describing his shopper record as together with Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson and Burt Reynolds, and one in every of his areas of experience as navigating the Division of Motor Automobiles.
Lately, Herman has been concerned in a authorized dispute with the daughter of one in every of his former shoppers, Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics. After Lee died in 2018, Herman sued Lee’s daughter, JC Lee, over allegations she had made to The Every day Beast about her conduct, together with that he sneaked into her father’s dwelling, which he mentioned in courtroom paperwork was false.
Lee then filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to Herman for her accusation in a podcast that she had thrown her father’s head right into a chair, a narrative she mentioned in courtroom paperwork was fabricated. In authorized paperwork, she accused Herman of forging her father’s signature on mortgage paperwork — a declare he known as “fully fabricated” in Friday’s interview.
A decide dismissed Herman’s lawsuit in opposition to Lee and ordered him to pay legal professional charges, in response to courtroom paperwork. In her defamation case, Ms. Lee obtained a default judgment final month after Herman failed to seem in courtroom or reply to lawsuits. He was ordered to pay Ms. Lee greater than $100,000. Within the interview, he mentioned he was not conscious of the current authorized actions within the case and that he intends to attraction the choice.
Herman mentioned he took on Ms. Birdsong’s case together with her greatest pursuits in thoughts. However he was questioned intently on the listening to in January, during which Decide Bogdanoff requested him to clarify why he didn’t hand over Ms. Birdsong’s cash, as he mentioned he did. Mr. Herman responded that he had been working intently together with her household for the reason that starting.
“Your Honor, if I’ll say so, with respect and humility, Ms. Birdsong wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for me,” he mentioned, “and I’m happy with that.”
