*Months before her death last August, someone allegedly swiped nearly $200K from Aretha Franklin’s bank account.
The music legend actually filed a police, claiming the alleged culprit stole checks and transferred $178k from her account. Investigators weren’t able to ID a person of interest until after she died.
Now, TMZ reports that prosecutors don’t have enough evidence to file charges based on just a police report alone. Additional testimony from a witness to the crime and/or the alleged victim is needed.
The prosecutors reportedly weren’t able to confirm with Aretha while she was alive how the checks were accessed or whether she willingly gave the person of interest the money.
Without this crucial information and additional evidence, the case is on ice — for now.
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In related news Tyler Perry said on Late Night with Seth Meyers that the Queen of Soul once demanded that he speak to her as his character Madea.
“First time she called me, it was like ‘This is Aretha Franklin.’ I’m like ‘Oh my god, how are you?’ She’s like ‘I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to Madea,'” Perry said on Wednesday.
“I’m like ‘Well, you know she’s not real.’ She said ‘I don’t care, put her on the phone,'” the filmmaker, who did fulfill Franklin’s request, continued.
“I just went for it,” he said.
Perry hosted a tribute concert in honor of Franklin that is set to air on CBS March 10.
Meanwhile, the plans to retire Madea with the release of his latest film, “A Madea Family Funeral,” which arrives in theaters March 1.
“It’s not her funeral but that old broad is dead man. I’m done,” Perry said to Meyers. “She’s been a good character, she’s been a great franchise, it’s done really really well but yeah it’s time.”
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