King family lawsuit called ‘disheartening’

It is a fight over money and power, philosophies and principles, petty misunderstandings and silly squabbles.

The bitter family feud that has divided the children of Martin Luther King Jr. isn’t much different than other fights between brothers and sisters — except that this one has spilled into the courts and publicly tarnished the legacy of an American icon of peace and harmony.

“It’s disheartening, from the standpoint that it’s just not the way things ought to be,” Jock Smith, attorney for Bernice and Martin Luther King III, said Wednesday.

On Monday, Dexter King filed a lawsuit contending his siblings had breached their fiduciary and personal duties to the King Center in Atlanta and their father’s estate, misused assets belonging to the center, and kept money that should’ve been channeled back into the center and the estate.

The counter-suit came six weeks after Bernice and Martin sued Dexter, making similar claims that Dexter mishandled family money and failed to properly involve them in family business matters.

In a telephone interview, attorney Smith denied the new allegations against Bernice and Martin. He also questioned the validity of the suit, since the King Center is supposed to be jointly owned and controlled by the three siblings.

“I have serious questions if the center can even file a suit against Bernice and Martin because they are the King Center,” Smith said. “It would be like the Bill Clinton presidential library suing Bill Clinton.”

Dexter King, who lives in Malibu, Calif., is chairman of both the King Center and the Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Inc., which handles rights to the works of the slain civil rights leader. His brother and sister are directors and co-owners of the center and the King estate’s company.

Smith said Dexter’s decision to use the King Center to counter-sue his siblings illustrates his misuse of power and his history of making decisions involving the center without seeking proper input from his family members.

“That’s the very reason the initial lawsuit was filed against him,” Smith said.

In e-mailed comments to a reporter last month, Dexter shed light on a key claim of his counter-suit: that his siblings have used their parents’ legacy for their own benefit, from helping promote moral issues such as condemning gay marriage to personal matters like using King Center cars.

“This in a nutshell is what this fight is all about,” Dexter wrote. “It is not about mismanagement or documents or meetings.”

He wrote that “my siblings, Bernice in particular, was trying to use the legacy to further their own personal and religious agendas” — something he called “a very dangerous road” for the family.

“As long as I am around they will not be able to use this company and its assets as their personal microphone,” he wrote. “We are here to protect a legacy, one that already exists and has a history, not to create new ones.”

In his counter-suit, Dexter offered several examples illustrating his claims.

In 2004, for instance, Bernice King co-organized an event that began at the King Center designed partly to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. That position goes against the stated goals of the King Center and the philosophy of inclusiveness espoused by their father, the suit claims.

Martin, the suit claims, established a competing foundation called Realizing the Dream Inc. to make money off of his parents’ legacy that ought to go to the center.

On another occasion, the newest suit claims, Martin “commandeered a reception” being held at the center “and turned it into his own wedding reception.” He also improperly kept a $55,000 Lincoln Navigator SUV that was donated to the center for his own use, the suit claims.

Bernice used King Center office space and other assets to run her for-profit group First Kingdom Management Inc., according to the suit. She also made or tried to make money from rights for books and television shows that should’ve gone back to the center, the suit claims.

In a statement, Dexter’s attorney said his client had had little choice but to file the suit.

“The King Center was unable, after numerous attempts over a long period of time, to convince Martin and Bernice to stop using the King Center for their own personal gain,” attorney L. Lin Wood said.

Smith, the attorney for Bernice and Martin, characterized Dexter’s claims as petty and misguided.

“He’s talking about cars and office space,” he said. “We’re talking about a legacy and being locked out of access to anything for years.”

But, Smith added, “that’s why they built courthouses.”