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TOMI RAE STILL TRYING TO GET IN THE HOUSE: James Brown’s former backup singer says she can prove they were married.
*The rollercoaster relationship between James Brown and his partner Tomi Rae Hynie continues on, even after the entertainer’s death on Christmas morning.
The former backup singer for Brown was barred from entering his Beech Island, South Carolina home Monday for estate legal reasons. She was told by Brown’s lawyer that her supposed marriage to the entertainer was not legal.
"It's not a reflection on her as an individual," lawyer Buddy Dallas told the Associated Press Tuesday of the decision to bar Hynie from the home. "I have not even been in the house, nor will I until appropriate protocol is followed."
Dallas says Hynie was not fully divorced from a Texas man in 2001 when she married Brown, thus making her marriage to the "Godfather of Soul" invalid. He said Hynie later annulled the previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried.
She indicated that while annulment papers relating to her previous marriage initially may not have been filed properly, a judge had told her she was legally married to Brown.
In a phone interview with the Associated Press, Hynie said she had documentation to prove she was legally married to Brown. Hynie said the couple had planned to renew their vows but not remarry.
In the meantime, Hynie said she is suffering in an Augusta hotel without money or a change of clothes. However, Dallas told AP: "Ms. Hynie has a home a few blocks away from Mr. Brown's home where she resides periodically when she is not with Mr. Brown. She is not without housing or home."
Dallas said Brown and Hynie hadn't seen each other for several weeks before his death. Hynie said Brown had sent her to California for a few weeks to relax on the beach after a recent concert tour.
"I was taking antidepressants," she said. "My job, marriage was difficult. So he sent me to the beach. He paid $24,000 for me to go. He was a difficult man to live with, but he was a great man. I was the only one who could handle James."
Hynie said she believes Brown's representatives are trying to discredit her so that she will not be able to share in his estate. She acknowledged that the bulk of the estate was left to Brown's children, but said Brown had told her she could live in his home with their child as long as she wanted.
"That was James Brown's wishes," Hynie told AP as she broke down in tears. Hynie and Brown had a tumultuous relationship.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who considered Brown a father figure and will officiate Saturday’s public funeral in Augusta, said he did not want to get involved in the dispute.
"I have enormous respect for all of the Brown family," he said. "But this is between attorneys and nothing to do with his kids or with me. For us, it is a time to mourn and to celebrate his life."
Brown pleaded guilty in 2004 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an argument with Hynie and paid a $1,087 fine. He was accused of pushing Hynie to the floor at the home and threatening to kill her.
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Check out Cedric The Entertainer,
DeRay Davis and Niecy Nash in the
action comedy, CODE NAME: THE
CLEANER in theatres January 5.
Check www.thecleanermovie.com
for more info.
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