B.B. King’s Lawyer Dismisses Homicide Claims

BBKing-death-poison — Blues legend B.B. King, who died recently, is seen onstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, July 2, 2011. Reuters

The legal dispute over blues legend B.B King's death is getting uglier with each passing day. Earlier this week, King's daughters Karen Williams and Patty King alleged that their father was murdered by his aide and demanded an autopsy on his body. However, King's attorney has now dismissed their claims saying that the daughters' moves are motivated by money.

“It’s fiction. There’s no truth behind that at all,” King's attorney, Brent Bryson, told People magazine Wednesday. King, 89, died May 14 as a result of small strokes fueled by his Type 2 diabetes, the Las Vegas coroner said in a statement at that time.

Bryson told the magazine that there is no truth in the daughters' appeals and their move is triggered by King's will and trust, where he left little money to his descendants. King left between $2,000 and $5,000 to his children and created a trust that would pay for college and other expenses for family members.

“He left some amounts to his sibling, to his children, to his grandchildren and through his testamentary documents, and they’re probably not happy with that. … It’s really all about money,” Bryson told the magazine. However, the attorney for the daughters, Larissa Drohobyczer, has refuted these claims.

Drohobyczer told the magazine that her clients “have nothing to gain financially by getting the truth to how their father died.” The daughters want to know why none of the members of the family were allowed to visit King one week prior to his death. She said her clients became suspicious of business manager, LaVerne Toney, and King's personal assistant, Myron Johnson, when they refused to let them meet their father in his last days. “My clients just want answers,” she added.

The daughters have requested a criminal inquiry, which prompted the coroner to perform an autopsy on King's body. This infuriated Bryson, who called the autopsy a “most disgusting thing” that King would not have wanted to be done. He claims “this is something that could’ve been raised after he was laid to rest.”