The two former trustees of James Brown's estate who resigned last month have now asked to have their resignations withdrawn because, they claim, they only resigned because the judge hearing a dispute relating to the trust told them too, and that he shouldn't have done that.
Buddy Dallas and Alford Bradley claim that Circuit Judge Jack Early was guilty of "improper judicial influence" when he told them to resign. Early was presiding over claims a third trustee, David Cannon, had misappropriated funds from the trust, which benefits from a significant chunk of Brown's estate, and was set up to provide for poor children in Georgia and South Carolina. Some of Brown's children claimed Dallas and Bradley had mismanaged the trust by not spotting and stopping Cannon's actions.
In new court papers Dallas and Bradley have now asked for the order accepting their impromptu resignations, and the resulting appointment of new trustees, to be overturned. Early's office is yet to respond.