“She’s out here trying to help him, trying to make sure he’s in a position to become the person who she knows and loves,” Cher's lawyer told the court at a Friday hearing
by Nancy Dillon
A Los Angeles County judge has denied Cher’s emergency bid to have a court-appointed conservator placed in charge of her son’s finances while he remains locked in a New Hampshire psychiatric facility facing criminal charges.
Cher had asked for the immediate conservatorship over Elijah Blue Allman, her only son with late Allman Brothers singer Gregg Allman, ahead of his next quarterly payout from his late father’s trust in May. The judge said she did not see the urgency and would reconsider the matter at a follow-up hearing in June. The judge added Cher could return sooner if another court finds Allman lacks capacity.
Allman, 49, appeared at the hearing remotely. On a live video feed from his hospital in New Hampshire, he sat in an office chair and spoke only briefly, asking that his former attorney, Steven K. Brumer, represent him and thanking the judge for her ruling.
“I certainly understand the concerns of Mr. Allman’s friends and family regarding his behavior. But those concerns do not necessarily equate to a finding that the proposed conservatee lacks capacity or that a probate conservatorship is appropriate,” Jessica A Uzcategui said from the bench. “I am going to deny the temporary conservatorship without prejudice.”
Friday’s hearing came more than a year after Cher and Allman reached a private settlement in 2024 that ended Cher’s earlier effort to get control of his trust payments. Cher brought her first petition for a conservatorship in 2023, claiming Allman “urgently needed” protection amid “severe mental health and substance abuse issues.”
When Cher filed her revived petition last week, she claimed Allman failed to live up to his promise to hire a business manager. She claimed his life has been derailed again by ongoing substance abuse and mental health issues, and he desperately needs court supervision.
“Elijah’s situation has become dire on multiple fronts. His mental health has severely deteriorated, his financial situation is terrible, and his drug dependency is at its worst,” her new petition filed April 15 in probate court and obtained by Rolling Stone alleges. She called Allman “gravely disabled,” pointing to his recent back-to-back arrests in New Hampshire for allegedly making criminal threats at a school and breaking into a woman’s house.
On Friday, Cher’s lawyer, Justin Gold, told the court that Allman ended up in custody after traveling to New Hampshire “to apparently visit a friend” and going on “some sort of a spree” that led to his arrests and hospitalization. Gold argued that a financial conservatorship was urgently needed because Allman is burdened by “substantial debts,” including a $200,000 tax bill and a $6,500-a-month spousal support obligation that he allegedly cannot afford.
“Hopefully his health can be handled and improved [in New Hampshire]. And while he’s there improving himself and hopefully being weaned off addiction and getting some medication, his financial ship can be righted,” Gold said. “He can’t do as much damage in a locked facility, but the damage has been done, and someone needs to deal with it.”
Gold said Cher ultimately retained a lawyer to try to reduce the monthly spousal support payments after Allman defaulted in the divorce case. But he said there’s only so much she can do without more court intervention.
“She’s out here trying to help him, trying to make sure he’s in a position to become the person who she knows and loves,” Gold said. “And the same with his brother and the rest of the family, who are all so sad about what’s happening.”
The judge heard arguments from both sides and said she couldn’t see any “exigency for the court’s intervention” on Friday. She said the trust distribution set for May did not qualify as an emergency.
“Given that the proposed conservatee is currently in a psychiatric hospital with pending charges awaiting him, I don’t have any reason to believe he would be able to access any of that distribution for illicit substances or expensive hotels,” she said.
In a statement to Rolling Stone on Thursday night, Allman’s other lawyer, Avi Levy, said the 49-year-old guitarist for the rock band Deadsy was “disappointed but not surprised by this latest attempt to gain control over his finances.” The lawyer said he and his co-counsel had “spoken with Elijah several times this week, and he remains in good spirits despite the circumstances.”
When Cher first sought conservatorship control in December 2023, Allman appeared in court to oppose the effort in person, saying he had stopped using drugs and would get his finances in order. Judge Uzcategui declined to grant an emergency conservatorship then as well and set a more comprehensive hearing on a possible permanent arrangement, but then the parties settled.
Since 2024, Cher claims, Allman has been “living wildly beyond his means,” bouncing between “expensive hotels he cannot afford” and short-term rental homes, allegedly causing more than $50,000 in damage to one Airbnb, and purportedly racking up an $18,000 bill with a drug dealer.
According to a bail order obtained by Rolling Stone, Allman was arrested on Feb. 27 at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, on suspicion of trespassing, criminal threats, and simple assault. Local outlet WMUR 9 News reported that Allman allegedly slipped onto campus, claiming he was a prospective parent, turned belligerent, and poked a student with his cane. Allman was booked and released, then arrested again two days later on a burglary rap in Windham, New Hampshire, after a woman called police saying she was “hiding in a closet” because someone had broken into her home, a police affidavit obtained by Rolling Stone alleges. Officers arrived to find a shattered glass door and Allman “seated on the living room couch smoking a cigarette,” the report says.
A New Hampshire judge set a June 16 trial for Allman’s Concord school case at a hearing on Monday, WMUR reported. Allman did not attend the Monday arraignment hearing in person, the outlet said.
Cher’s documents say Allman receives $120,000 a year via the trust set up by his dad. Once he gets a payment, it’s “immediately squandered without regard for his liabilities or well-being,” Cher’s court filings say.
“There is a clear pattern in Elijah’s behavior,” Cher alleges in the documents filed by her lawyer. “After he receives his trust distribution, he checks into a hotel, usually the Chateau Marmont, buys and does drugs until he runs out of money, ends up in the hospital, or overdoses. Based on this pattern, if Elijah were to receive his trust distribution, he will use it to buy drugs.”
Allman’s brother, Devon Allman, submitted a declaration in support of the new conservatorship request. “It is my opinion that he is currently a danger to himself and unable to manage his life, and any funds that would become available to him,” he wrote. “My recent visit to check in on him brought me unfortunate and profound sadness that took weeks of my life to process. His condition, both physical and mental, was appalling and delusional, respectively.”
Devon said he previously was compelled to “negotiate with a heroin dealer for a five-figure sum of drug debts” because his brother was unable to pay. “That was very difficult to navigate. I felt compelled to help for his safety, though,” he wrote. “I strongly urge that Elijah be kept away from money until he has demonstrated a commitment to invest in his long-term physical and mental health.”
When Cher initially sought a conservatorship in 2023, she asked to be named her son’s financial conservator. This time, she’s asking the court to appoint Jason Rubin, a licensed private fiduciary. She’s asking the court to grant Rubin the power to receive her son’s trust distributions and use them to pay Allman’s expenses at his discretion. Rubin appeared in court Friday but did not address the judge.
Full Article & Source:
Judge Denies Cher’s Bid for Emergency Conservatorship Over Son Elijah Blue Allman
See Also:
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