DEL.ICIO.USSiblings ordered to hand over Mrs. King’s letters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Fulton County Superior Court judge on Friday evening ordered Martin Luther King III and Bernice King to release personal papers and letters belonging to their late mother to their younger brother Dexter King.
Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville made clear how the more than 700 boxes containing Coretta Scott King’s documents should be produced to the court in an order released late Friday evening.
ALLEN SULLIVAN / aesullivan@ajc.com
Dexter King and attorney Craig Frankel (left) leave the courtroom Friday.
ALLEN SULLIVAN / aesullivan@ajc.com
Martin Luther King III and his sister, Bernice, enter Fulton County Superior Court on Friday.
“The parties have a duty to fully cooperate in the protocol established,” he wrote in his order. “Any party failing to adhere to any court order … may face sanctions.”
Those sanctions could include jail time, court spokesman Don Plummer said.
Primary among Glanville’s special instructions was that Bernice King and Martin Luther King III begin producing documents — 80 boxes at a time — on Monday.
A court order requesting documents earlier this week wasn’t fully honored, Plummer said. Some boxes were produced, but many contained other belongings of Mrs. King’s and not just documents.
Dexter King took his siblings to court seeking letters sent between civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife. Dexter King seeks Coretta King’s papers on behalf of King Inc., the family corporation that controls King’s intellectual property, but his brother and sister have resisted.
As president and chief executive officer of King Inc., Dexter King has sought access to the letters for a planned autobiography of his mother.
Another of Glanville’s directives said that his “special master” — the court appointed auditor of the documents — would return any material he deemed sensitive, based upon agreed-upon criteria by both parties.
“We are pleased that the documents are being produced,” said Craig Frankel, the attorney representing Dexter King.
The estate left behind by Coretta King was packed up after her death. Organizers collected books, clothing, jewelry and photographs at the King family house on Sunset Avenue in the Atlanta University area, and at Coretta King’s Buckhead condo.
According to affidavits, between 750 and 1,000 boxes were packed. Bernice and Martin King III have said they don’t know the contents of the boxes and have not had time to go through her belongings.
Since Coretta King’s death in 2006, there has been growing turmoil among the siblings — Dexter versus Bernice and Martin King III — over who should have the personal documents and how they should be used.
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