The estate of late American country music icon Dolly Parton has become embroiled in a legal dispute less than a month after her death, with her business corporation seeking court protection from her nephew and former security chief.
Parton, who died in August at the age of 80, left behind an estate reportedly valued at about $450m (£335m).
She’s Alive, the corporation overseeing Parton’s business interests, filed a restraining order against Bryan Seaver on Tuesday at the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, Tennessee.
The filing accused Seaver of mounting an increasingly aggressive campaign against the corporation and people connected to Parton in an alleged attempt to obtain money from the late singer’s estate.
According to The Telegraph, the court documents portrayed Seaver’s former security operation as “a heavily armed, paramilitary-style force” rather than a conventional corporate security team.
The filing alleged that Seaver’s company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, LLC (SAPS), had military-grade weapons and employed dozens of personnel.
Court documents reportedly included text messages in which a person identified as Seaver allegedly threatened a business associate of Dollywood, saying he would become “the hand of retribution for my entire family”.
The complaint also alleged that Seaver referred to himself as a “killer” in a message sent to one of Parton’s lawyers on September 3.
Prompt News reports Seaver was further accused of threatening to launch a podcast designed to harm Parton’s business interests and relationships.
The complaint claimed he told Danny Nozell, manager of She’s Alive, that he intended to produce a podcast “dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships” while exposing alleged wrongdoing involving his family.
Nozell reportedly dismissed Seaver from his position on September 15.
The legal filing also stated that a lawyer working for Parton’s estate and trust resigned after allegedly receiving “harassing and ominous threats” from Seaver during a telephone conversation.
According to the complaint, the dispute has also led some employees to leave their jobs, while others have reportedly hired private security because of concerns surrounding the alleged threats.
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She’s Alive said Parton had previously valued having relatives work within her businesses when they had skills suited to the roles they occupied.
However, the corporation alleged that Seaver later threatened its employees, legal representatives and business associates, including allegedly vowing to “destroy the entire brand” and threatening to “ratfuck every (business party) entity”.
Seaver has denied that his messages constituted threats, arguing that the statements cited in the lawsuit were taken out of context.
In a statement to TMZ on Tuesday, he described himself as a career soldier, military contractor and security professional while acknowledging some of the comments attributed to him.
“I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments. I am a security professional, and I am a killer. However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by,” he said.
Seaver also argued that his exchanges with Nozell were private conversations between two people dealing with grief following Parton’s death.
“I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny, who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster. A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving,” he added.
Parton’s estate has yet to publicly provide further details about the financial disagreement involving Seaver or disclose the amount of money allegedly at the centre of the dispute.
