Bobby
Brown, the father of Bobbi Kristina Brown, sits in court during a
wrongful death case against his daughter's partner, Nick Gordon, in
Atlanta, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. Bobbi Kristina was found face-down and
unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome in January
2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman, Pool)
ATLANTA
(AP) — A judge in Atlanta on Thursday ordered Bobbi Kristina Brown's
partner, Nick Gordon, to pay $36 million in a wrongful death case, her
estate's lawyers said.
Brown,
the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was found
face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome
in January 2015. Gordon, who also lived there, and a friend were listed
on the police report as being in the home when investigators arrived
there.
The
wrongful death suit said other people were there when Brown was
initially found unresponsive. She was in a coma for six months before
dying in hospice care at age 22 on July 26, 2015. Her death was similar
to the way her mother died and drew worldwide headlines and the frenzied
attention of the tabloids.
Whitney
Houston's body was found face-down in a foot of water in her bathtub at
the Beverly Hilton Hotel just before the 2012 Grammy Awards.
Authorities found prescription drugs in the suite and evidence of heart
disease and cocaine in Houston's body and determined her death was an
accidental drowning.
Fulton
County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford ruled in September that
Gordon repeatedly failed to meet court deadlines in the civil suit. His
order said that means the conservator of her estate wins by default.
Bedford on Thursday awarded damages of $36,250,000, the estate's lawyers said in an emailed statement.
"There
was an urgent need, in my mind, to get justice for Bobbi Kristina Brown
and that's why I took the case. We intend to pursue, with all vigor,
the full collection of the judgment," attorney David Ware said in the
statement. "We hope that in some small way this will allow Krissy's
family to continue their quest for peace."
Bobby
Brown and his daughter, LaPrincia Brown, Bobbi Kristina Brown's
half-sister, were among the witnesses who testified at Thursday's
hearing.
The
young woman's family blamed Gordon, accusing him in the lawsuit of
giving Brown a "toxic cocktail" before putting her face-down in the
water. Gordon, an orphan three years older whom Houston had raised as
her own, has not been charged with a crime. Brown had referred to Gordon
as her husband.
Gordon
wasn't in court Thursday and did not have an attorney in the civil
case, but his criminal defense attorneys, Joe Habachy and Jose Baez, had
said in August 2015 that the allegations were baseless. They also said
that Gordon is "heartbroken" and called the suit a "fictitious assault."
Investigators
with the medical examiner's office were unable to determine exactly how
Brown had died. An autopsy showed she had morphine, cocaine, alcohol
and prescription drugs in her body. But the medical examiner couldn't
determine if she killed herself, if someone else killed her or if her
death was accidental.
Dontaye
Carter, a spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard,
said in an email Thursday that Brown's death is still under
investigation.
Brown
grew up in the shadow of her famous parents. She appeared with them in
2005 on the Bravo reality show "Being Bobby Brown" and attended award
shows with her mother and father.
Houston
and Bobby Brown were married 15 years before their relationship ended
in 2007. Bobbi Kristina was their only child together.
In August 2015, family and friends gathered at a cemetery in New Jersey and buried Bobbi Kristina Brown next to her mother.
0 comments:
Post a Comment