News
Litigation
Feb. 21, 2002
Beatle Lives on in Fight Over Collectibles
Column by Garry Abrams - It's a Hollywood truism that dead celebrities usually spend a portion of eternity right here on earth - in a courtroom. In this vein, the posthumous legal existence of former Beatle George Harrison, who died in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, has been lively.
By Garry Abrams
It's a Hollywood truism that dead celebrities usually spend a portion of eternity right here on earth - in a courtroom.
In this vein, the posthumous legal existence of former Beatle George Harrison, who died in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, has been lively.
Last Friday, for example, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction against a former brother-in-law of Harrison's. (You know you're a celebrity when a former brother-in-law becomes a postmortem headache.)
Judge Dzintra I. Janavs barred Carl Roles of Temecula from selling 10 boxes of photographs, sheet music, pristine Beatles records and other Harrison memorabilia allegedly stolen more than 20 years ago from a Los Angeles house Harrison once owned.
The preliminary injunction was the latest round in a brisk legal firefight started by Harrison's estate against Roles within a few weeks of Harrison's death from cancer.
Much of the background to this story is either tangled, contradictory or veiled in the mists of time and memory.
The memorabilia in question apparently came from the Bel Air house owned by Harrison that collapsed in a mudslide in 1980. At the time, Roles and his wife Linda Arias, a sister of Harrison's widow Olivia, occupied the house as caretakers, according to case papers.
Roles allegedly retrieved items from the wreckage of the house before a salvage company hired by Harrison arrived on the scene.
For whatever reasons, the stuff salvaged by Roles disappeared from history and memory until Harrison died.
Then, the day after Harrison died, Roles began trying to sell the Harrison material, court papers filed by longtime Harrison attorney Robert Chapman assert.
Court papers filed by Roles' attorney Patricia H. Benson claim that Roles engaged in a heroic effort to retrieve belongings from the collapsing house. Roles then stored the items, inadvertently commingling his possessions with Harrison's. Later, Harrison supposedly told Roles to "hang onto" the items from the collapsed house until Harrison asked for them.
Harrison never asked for the property, according to Roles' version of events.
Unfortunately for Roles, he probably will have a tough time explaining why he agreed to a Jan. 4 meeting arranged by David Schumacher, a reporter for the English tabloid News of the World.
The meeting turned out to be a sting.
In a declaration, Schumacher said that he arranged the meeting in a West Los Angeles hotel suite after Roles repeatedly told him that he wanted to sell Harrison collectibles. Schumacher told Roles that a buyer of collectibles would attend the meeting, according to the declaration.
But the supposed buyer was actually ... an FBI agent.
Meanwhile, in a nearby room, celebrity security consultant Gavin de Becker was getting it all on tape.
According to his declaration, de Becker got in the act because he had become "aware" of the contact between Schumacher and Roles. (De Becker's declaration also states that yet another "news reporter" told him of Roles' attempt to sell Harrison memorabilia.)
So there apparently was a fairly dramatic scene when de Becker and the FBI agent and the supporting cast of eavesdroppers revealed themselves.
Roles packed up his yard sale and left in a huff - without being arrested.
Chapman says the FBI considers the investigation open.
In an exchange of letters earlier this month Benson and Chapman tossed aspersions over Harrison's ghost.
"Your clients' continued refusal to return that which does not belong to them is further evidence of their wrongdoing and malice," Chapman wrote.
Benson replied, "The only people who are acting maliciously in this situation are your clients, who intentionally have made it impossible for my clients to turn anything over to you because if they do so you will argue it is an admission that they stole it."
Heaven will have to wait.
It's a Hollywood truism that dead celebrities usually spend a portion of eternity right here on earth - in a courtroom.
In this vein, the posthumous legal existence of former Beatle George Harrison, who died in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, has been lively.
Last Friday, for example, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction against a former brother-in-law of Harrison's. (You know you're a celebrity when a former brother-in-law becomes a postmortem headache.)
Judge Dzintra I. Janavs barred Carl Roles of Temecula from selling 10 boxes of photographs, sheet music, pristine Beatles records and other Harrison memorabilia allegedly stolen more than 20 years ago from a Los Angeles house Harrison once owned.
The preliminary injunction was the latest round in a brisk legal firefight started by Harrison's estate against Roles within a few weeks of Harrison's death from cancer.
Much of the background to this story is either tangled, contradictory or veiled in the mists of time and memory.
The memorabilia in question apparently came from the Bel Air house owned by Harrison that collapsed in a mudslide in 1980. At the time, Roles and his wife Linda Arias, a sister of Harrison's widow Olivia, occupied the house as caretakers, according to case papers.
Roles allegedly retrieved items from the wreckage of the house before a salvage company hired by Harrison arrived on the scene.
For whatever reasons, the stuff salvaged by Roles disappeared from history and memory until Harrison died.
Then, the day after Harrison died, Roles began trying to sell the Harrison material, court papers filed by longtime Harrison attorney Robert Chapman assert.
Court papers filed by Roles' attorney Patricia H. Benson claim that Roles engaged in a heroic effort to retrieve belongings from the collapsing house. Roles then stored the items, inadvertently commingling his possessions with Harrison's. Later, Harrison supposedly told Roles to "hang onto" the items from the collapsed house until Harrison asked for them.
Harrison never asked for the property, according to Roles' version of events.
Unfortunately for Roles, he probably will have a tough time explaining why he agreed to a Jan. 4 meeting arranged by David Schumacher, a reporter for the English tabloid News of the World.
The meeting turned out to be a sting.
In a declaration, Schumacher said that he arranged the meeting in a West Los Angeles hotel suite after Roles repeatedly told him that he wanted to sell Harrison collectibles. Schumacher told Roles that a buyer of collectibles would attend the meeting, according to the declaration.
But the supposed buyer was actually ... an FBI agent.
Meanwhile, in a nearby room, celebrity security consultant Gavin de Becker was getting it all on tape.
According to his declaration, de Becker got in the act because he had become "aware" of the contact between Schumacher and Roles. (De Becker's declaration also states that yet another "news reporter" told him of Roles' attempt to sell Harrison memorabilia.)
So there apparently was a fairly dramatic scene when de Becker and the FBI agent and the supporting cast of eavesdroppers revealed themselves.
Roles packed up his yard sale and left in a huff - without being arrested.
Chapman says the FBI considers the investigation open.
In an exchange of letters earlier this month Benson and Chapman tossed aspersions over Harrison's ghost.
"Your clients' continued refusal to return that which does not belong to them is further evidence of their wrongdoing and malice," Chapman wrote.
Benson replied, "The only people who are acting maliciously in this situation are your clients, who intentionally have made it impossible for my clients to turn anything over to you because if they do so you will argue it is an admission that they stole it."
Heaven will have to wait.
#337664
Garry Abrams
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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