Via NY Daily News:
The parents of Terence Crutcher and the mother of three of his kids are fighting in court over who can file a wrongful death lawsuit on his behalf.
Joey and Leanna Crutcher, the parents of the unarmed black man killed by a white Tulsa, Okla., police officer, alleged in a court filings Monday that Frenchel Renae Johnson-Crutcher is unqualified to serve as special administrator of Crutcher’s estate.
Both the parents and Johnson-Crutcher have hired lawyers. Tulsa County Judge Kurt Glassco appointed Johnson-Crutcher, whose attorney calls her Crutcher’s widow, special administrator Friday.
Yet Crutcher’s parents said Johnson-Crutcher’s felony convictions and the parents’ status as the legal guardians of Crutcher and Johnson-Crutcher’s children should have ruled her out. The parents said Crutcher and Johnson-Crutcher never officially married.
Johnson-Crutcher received the special administrator status allowing her to file the wrongful death lawsuit despite being “disqualified, ineligible and incompetent,” the parents’ filing said.
Their lawyers, Donald Bingham and Melvin Hall, asked Glassco to vacate the order making Johnson-Crutcher the special administrator. Rev. Joey Crutcher and his wife “have had Ms. Johnson’s children in their physical custody for most of the children’s lives,” according to the filing.
Johnson-Crutcher also signed over her power of attorney to Crutcher’s parents under oath in August 2007, the filing said. Laws prohibit those convicted of an “infamous crime” from serving as special administrators of an estate, according to the parents’ lawyers.
The filing included district criminal court records charging Johnson-Crutcher with assault and battery and other crimes in a stabbing last month. Johnson-Crutcher was convicted in August 2007 of driving under the influence of alcohol, the charging documents showed.