A judge Friday threw out Cher’s bid to have her drug-troubled adult son Elijah Blue Allman placed in a conservatorship controlled by her.
The legendary singer and actress petitioned LA Superior Court last week to appoint her as Elijah’s temporary conservator, arguing that the 47 year-old’s drug addiction, plus mental and physical health issues, make him unable to manage the $120,000 a year he gets from a trust fund set up for him by his late father, rock star Gregg Allman.
Cher, 77, said she feared he would spend his $10,000 a month payouts on drugs, putting his life in jeopardy.
But Friday Judge Jessica Uzcategui refused to appoint Cher as conservator, saying that the star’s attorneys had not given Elijah enough notice of the court action and had refused to share confidential information with him about his case.
After Friday’s brief hearing, when DailyMail.com asked how he felt about the result, Elijah – dressed in dark pants, light blue shirt, a quilted black vest and with his light brown hair slicked back – just smiled and shook his head.
With Elijah – who turned up at court despite his mother’s contention that he’d gone missing – was his recently reconciled wife Marieangela ‘Queeny’ King, 36, dressed in a cream pantsuit and with her black hair past her shoulders. She too refused to comment.
Elijah Blue Allman turned up with wife Marieangela ‘Queeny’ King for a hearing in a Los Angeles court Friday morning where a judge refused to appoint Cher, 77, as his temporary conservator
Cher is battling Allman’s wife who has claimed she had to risk her life rescuing him from a dodgy rehab center in Mexico
In a new court filing singer Cher says she does not know where her drug addict son Elijah Blue Allman is
Cher’s attorney, Gabrielle Vidal, asked the judge to waive the usual 5-day notice required to inform Elijah of the proposed conservatorship.
Vidal argued that ‘absent a (conservatorship) order today’ distribution of money to Elijah from his trust fund could put him ‘in a life or death position.’
Cher wants Elijah’s trust payments to go instead to a conservatorship bank account that she would monitor and would pay for his day-to-day living expenses and health care.
But said Judge Uzcategui, ‘I am not persuaded’ noting that Elijah – who showed up in court Friday oloking tanned and healthy – was given ‘at best less than 24 hours notice.’
The judge continued the temporary conservatorship petition to January 29, ordering Cher’s lawyers to share all confidential information they have with her son’s legal team a week ahead of that court date.
Elijah and King recently decided to give their stormy, 10-year marriage another try and have asked a different judge to dismiss the divorce action they have pending.
Meanwhile Cher claims King, has been a ‘destructive presence’ in his life and is impeding efforts to have him get the help he needs with drug and mental health issues.
King and Cher have clashed frequently over Elijah in the past. King has claimed that the international entertainer tried to thwart a reconciliation between the two by kidnapping her son and sending him to a rehab facility. Cher has denied that allegation..
The ‘Believe’ singer said in court docs that she has not been able to effectively communicate with Elijah on the conservatorship proposal because of Elijah’s current mental and physical health issues,.
Her attorneys claim Elijah ‘is unable to form or express a preference concerning the appointment of a conservator for his estate.’
In legal docs, Cher said she was concerned that ‘that any funds distributed to Elijah will immediately be spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk.’
Also mother to son Chaz Bono, 54, from her first marriage to the late Sonny Bono, Cher has insisted that, as Elijah’s mother, she is best suited to be his conservator and that she has received family support on the issue.
Referring to Elijah’s on-again, off-again marriage to King, ‘Their tumultuous relationship has been marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises,’ she said in court filings.
Cher claims King has not been ‘supportive of Elijah’s recovery and … actively works to keep Elijah from getting clean and sober or receiving mental health treatment that he desperately needs.’
She added that she was ‘informed and believes’ King was instrumental in making moves ‘to check Elijah out of the treatment center where he was receiving much needed medical care.’
Cher cited Elijah’s volatile relationship King as a reason why King ‘is not entitled to appointment as conservator of Elijah’s estate unless the court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that such appointment would be in Elijah’s best interest.’
She said it ‘would be unsafe for Elijah and his estate’ to assign King any control of the conservatorship,’ saying that ‘it would result in the immediate loss or dissipation of Elijah’s assets for self-destructive purposes.’
In September, DailyMail.com obtained photos showing a disheveled Allman outside Hollywood’s famed Chateau Marmont – where he had been living – just before he was removed by police and sent into treatment
Elijah Blue and his wife Marieangela ‘Queeny’ King have reconciled and are now living together, King’s attorney told DailyMail.com
Cher had petitioned the court to make her temporary conservator until the case could be heard in full in March (pictured with her son in 2001)
For King’s part, in court paper filed before she and her husband decided to call off their divorce, she accused Cher of kidnapping Elijah from a New York hotel room on their wedding anniversary just as they were trying to patch up their stormy marriage.
And this week she claimed that she risked her own life to get her husband out of a shady drug rehab facility in Mexico.
In a statement to DailyMail.com she charged Cher with throwing Elijah ‘into a lockdown facility’ in Mexico, saying she had ‘historically excluded’ her (King) from being involved in his treatment decisions.
‘I have always been a champion for the sober community and for Elijah’s sobriety,’ King said
‘I have full confidence in legitimate, ethically operated, HIPAA protected American medical establishments that offer long standing, time-tested treatment for those suffering from substance abuse or any number of mental health issues,
‘What I am not OK with are establishments that exclude me (his wife) from being part of Elijah’s treatment and hopeful recovery.
‘I am not OK with pop-up, makeshift, unethical scam rehabs which take full advantage of families in desperate situations and seek to fraudulently exploit insurance companies for services not rendered.
‘I am especially not OK with Elijah being coerced under false pretenses on or about October 17, 2023 into participating in an alternative medicine regimen and then being thrown into a lockdown facility in Mexico, sleeping behind a locked cage with six other individuals, under an imposed Mexican Conservatorship.’
The statement issued through her record company, said: ‘It is not an exaggeration to say that Ms. King recently risked her own life to ensure her husband’s safe return back to the U.S.’
It does not go into detail as to the circumstances of how King risked her life.
The statement goes on to say: ‘Any circulating rumors that insinuate that Ms. King has been anything other than an exemplary wife to Mr. Allman or is in any way complicit in impeding his recovery are patently false.’
Cher, 77, has long had a contentious relationship both with Elijah and her daughter-in-law Marieangela (pictured together in 2018)
Marieangela blasted Cher in a public statement, claiming the pop singer ‘historically excluded’ her from decisions involving Elijah’s care
King (pictured with Allman in 2013) released a statement criticizing mother-in-law Cher’s actions, saying she is ‘not OK’ with her husband ‘being coerced’ into ‘participating in an alternative medicine regimen’ that include sleeping in a ‘locked cage with six other individuals’
Insiders told DailyMail.com that worried hotel staff had regularly reached out to Cher due to his apparent drugged-out appearance. A police vehicle was seen parked outside the hotel after they were called to remove him on September 16
In papers filed just before the hearing was due to begin, Elijah, 47, said he did not want his famous mother interfering in his life.
‘Like many people I have struggled with addiction and spent money in ways that have not always been the most responsible,’ Elijah said in a written statement to the court.
‘However, I am now under the care of Dr. Howard Samuels and am attending AA meetings.
‘I have dismissed my petition for dissolution of marriage and I am reconciling with my wife so that we can work on our relationship now that I have found a path to sobriety.’
He went on to say that if he needed a conservator it should be his wife Queeny who should be appointed.
‘Under no circumstances am I comfortable having my mom as my conservator,’ he wrote saying a neutral outsider would be his second choice.
At question is thousands of dollars that Elijah receives four times a year from a trust fund set up by his late father, rock legend Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.
Elijah said he had recently passed a drug test and is willing to submit to more in the future.
‘I am clean and sober from illicit substances for over 90 days now and am fully capable of and committed to managing the money I receive quarterly from the trust left by my late father.
‘While I understand that my mother, the proposed conservator, believes she is looking out for my best interests and I appreciate her love and support, I do not need her unsolicited help or support at this time.
‘Should I need it, I know my mother will continue to provide love and support to me – as she always has.’
Earlier Cher had petitioned the court to make her temporary conservator until the case could be heard in full in March.
She said she has lost contact with Elijah. and fears that if he is allowed full access to the money from Gregg Allman’s trust he will spend it all on drugs.
‘Due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues, Elijah is not currently able to manage his finances,’ Cher said in a petition to the court filed Thursday.
She says if he got his hands on his money ‘such funds will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting his life at risk.’
The move by Cher was the latest in the increasingly bitter battle between the Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winner and her daughter-in-law Marieangela ‘Queeny’ King that has been simmering for years.
