James Brown estate abuse reminds of Sunshine Week, public information importance

James Brown estate abuse reminds of Sunshine Week, public information importance (SC)

March 17, 2015

This week (March 15 – 21) is Sunshine Week, a nationwide celebration of access to public information with emphasis on what it means for you and your community.
Legendary entertainer James Brown took great pains to ensure the creation of a clear and thorough estate plan. Despite Brown’s significant efforts, legal actions related to his estate have done nothing to further his wishes and instead have seriously highlighted the abuses of property rights and public trust that occur with government overreach and other questionable acts.
Through its dealings with the Brown estate and reporter Sue Summer, the state of South Carolina now also epitomizes the need for strong, enforced public information laws.
From Watchdog Arena:

South Carolina reporter Sue Summer never dreamed her Freedom of Information Act filings and subsequent investigation into the irregularities of “Godfather of Soul” James Brown’s estate handling would attract the state’s Supreme Court attention and become emblematic of the ends to which government will go when challenged, but that’s what’s happened.
Not only has the court recently issued an order freezing all Brown estate activities in lower courts pending a review of actions by the higher court, but the court has also reversed an order previously attempting to block Summer’s publication of a diary used in a prior court proceeding. The diary contains information harmful to  the state’s credibility in this matter and to an attempt by Tommie Rae Hynie, Brown’s former companion, for financial benefit from his estate.
Brown died on Christmas Day of 2006. At the time of his death, Brown’s worldwide music empire included copyrights to more than 800 songs and the rights to his image. A carefully crafted estate plan left a generous majority of his assets to the “I Feel Good” Trust, an education charity established to benefit  South Carolina and Georgia students in need.
Listen to the original audio of Brown’s wishes for his estate.
Six acknowledged children were also named in the will and tapped to receive the singer’s household possessions. Another family education trust of about $2 million was established for designated grandchildren. Hynie, with whom he had a child as well as an annulled marriage, was left nothing as per documents she had previously signed, a prenuptial agreement renouncing any claim to the estate, and a 2004 document attesting she would never claim common-law status.
Hynie’s marital status has been at issue since Brown’s death. Summer describes the “Hynie diary” as “a collection of notes that were found abandoned in the Brown home by the original three Brown trustees.” In 2008, after the notes were transcribed and disseminated to more than 40 people, Judge Doyet Early III issued a series of gag orders at the request of Hynie’s attorneys. Summer says the orders were issued without a hearing, required all “diary” copies to be returned, and prohibited any discussion of the “diary” contents.
Read more at Watchdog Arena.