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Just last year, Brad Herman, a longtime behind-the-scenes aide to celebrities, drew praise from the family of Cindy Birdsong, an ailing former member of the Supremes. He was credited with helping to rescue her from what they described as a friend\u2019s undue influence over her care and finances.<\/p>\n
But now, Mr. Herman has been named in a petition brought by Ms. Birdsong\u2019s son, who is accusing him in court papers of financial elder abuse and misappropriation of her money.<\/p>\n
The son, Charles Hewlett, who has been appointed the conservator of his mother\u2019s affairs, is seeking damages and the return of what his petition describes as missing funds.<\/p>\n
The allegations follow months of court proceedings over who should control a conservatorship overseeing the finances and medical decisions of Ms. Birdsong, 84, who was once part of a Motown group that became music royalty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Today, Ms. Birdsong is not able to communicate and is on a feeding tube after a series of strokes. She has lived at nursing facilities and hospitals since 2021 and a judge ultimately put Mr. Hewlett in charge of her affairs late last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Herman used his position of trust and confidence to take advantage of Ms. Birdsong\u2019s dependency and exercised care, custody and control over Ms. Birdsong\u2019s property,\u201d argues the petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this month by Susan Geffen, a lawyer for Mr. Hewlett.<\/p>\n
Mr. Herman defended his handling of Ms. Birdsong\u2019s affairs in an interview on Friday, saying he is \u201ccommitted to making certain that Ms. Birdsong\u2019s estate receives all that is due.\u201d He said he has an accountant examining Ms. Birdsong\u2019s banking records and that he is \u201cconvinced that the accounting will be in order\u201d ahead of a June hearing in the case.<\/p>\n
Years ago, Mr. Herman said, he stepped in to help Ms. Birdsong at the request of family members who lived outside of California. He said that Mr. Hewlett at the time did not seem interested in interceding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody else was taking care of her I wouldn\u2019t have needed to be asked to help,\u201d he said, later adding that \u201cat the end of the day all that matters is Cindy\u2019s welfare and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ms. Birdsong was a Supreme for nearly a decade during part of the group\u2019s heyday after replacing Florence Ballard in 1967. She performed hits like \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurry Love\u201d and \u201cCome See About Me\u201d alongside Diana Ross and Mary Wilson, living the glamorous life of a Motown star. But her career took a downturn after she was cut from the group in 1976.<\/p>\n
Her finances fell apart \u2014 which she attributed to a \u201cbad closing deal\u201d with Motown Records \u2014 and she largely withdrew from the limelight. She lived much of her later years in what family members described as an increasingly isolated life<\/a> at a Los Angeles apartment that she shared with Rochelle Lander, a longtime friend with whom she started a Christian ministry.<\/p>\n In interviews last year, Mr. Herman, Ms. Birdsong\u2019s three siblings and a sister-in-law described their efforts to get Ms. Birdsong out of the apartment, where, the siblings said, her health appeared to be deteriorating and Ms. Lander was not sharing information about her well-being.<\/p>\n The siblings signed papers granting Mr. Herman, who they said was recommended by mutual friends, her power of attorney. In 2021, he orchestrated Ms. Birdsong\u2019s removal from the apartment with help from the Los Angeles police and a private paramedic service. With power of attorney, Herman also set up a bank account for Ms. Birdsong that was in both of their names, according to court papers, an arrangement that Ms. Birdsong\u2019s family members said they understood as an attempt to marshal the singer\u2019s finances for her benefit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n (Ms. Lander, who has not agreed to an interview, has in prior settings defended her care. She has not interceded in court proceedings that have followed Ms. Birdsong\u2019s removal.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Last May, a year and a half after Ms. Birdsong had been relocated to a nursing facility, Mr. Herman applied to be co-conservator of Ms. Birdsong with her brother, Ronald Birdsong.<\/p>\n But a judge in Los Angeles asked county officials to take over after they raised concerns about how her finances had been handled. The county officials pointed to more than $190,000 t<\/strong>hat they said had been removed from her bank account but did not appear to have been put toward her care at nursing facilities.<\/p>\n The court revoked Mr. Herman\u2019s power of attorney, he dropped his request to be appointed her conservator and a county agency, the Office of the Public Guardian, began to oversee<\/a> Ms. Birdsong\u2019s affairs temporarily, until Mr. Hewlett was appointed last December.<\/p>\n In recent court hearings, Mr. Herman had increasingly tense interactions with Judge Lee R. Bogdanoff, who ordered him to produce an accounting of Ms. Birdsong\u2019s finances and produce $120,000 that Mr. Herman had said he had in cash and cashier\u2019s checks locked in a safe at home.<\/p>\n In January, when Mr. Herman handed Ms. Birdsong\u2019s son a check for $71,000 in the courtroom, Judge Bogdanoff challenged why the sum was less than what Mr. Herman had earlier reported. In court, Mr. Herman attributed the difference to \u201coffsets and deductions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not entitled to make any offsets and deductions,\u201d Judge Bogdanoff replied. \u201cIt\u2019s not your money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although Ms. Birdsong did not retain significant royalty rights, the records indicate she was receiving regular payments \u2014 monthly checks between a few hundred dollars and more than $10,000 \u2014 from SoundExchange, which distributes payments to musicians.<\/p>\n The petition accuses Mr. Herman of making \u201csignificant withdrawals or transfers of cash from Ms. Birdsong\u2019s account that were not used for her care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were led to believe Brad was keeping the money safe,\u201d said Melody Birdsong, a sister-in-law of Ms. Birdsong\u2019s, in an interview.<\/p>\n Mr. Herman has previously said in interviews that he was at one point responsible for paying Ms. Birdsong\u2019s expenses at the skilled nursing facilities where she had lived. The petition does not fully detail the amount Ms. Birdsong has incurred for her care since her removal from the apartment, but county officials told the court last year that she had an outstanding balance of more than $30,000 at various nursing facilities.<\/p>\n