A Tennessee judge granted Dolly Parton‘s estate a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the late singer’s nephew Bryan Seaver and his private security company.
She’s Alive, the entity founded to manage Parton’s estate, had filed the complaint against Seaver and Squadron Augmented Protection Services a day prior. The estate accused Seaver, who was Parton’s head of security, of threatening to commit violence and destroy his aunt’s legacy and business empire in court filings.
As part of the order, Seaver and SAPS must refrain from talking with or being within 1,000 feet of She’s Alive employees, attorneys and business partners. The order is also meant to keep him from interfering with its business relationships.
A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.
Seaver, who owns a company that provided Parton’s security detail and was handpicked by the star to announce her death from cancer last month, did not respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment Tuesday. No one came to the door Wednesday at an address listed in court documents for Seaver in the semi-rural Nashville suburb of Fairview. A woman speaking to a reporter through a doorbell camera said that they would not be speaking to anyone.
In the temporary restraining order request filed by She’s Alive, the entity that manages and protects Parton’s professional property and business, and other court documents, Seaver is accused of sending increasingly threatening messages over the last several weeks. She’s Alive is run by Danny Nozell, Parton’s longtime manager.
Last week, She’s Alive terminated Seaver and SAPS, saying his “terrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable,” according to court documents. The company is also named in the complaint; its representatives did not respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday.
The request alleges that Seaver and his company used “terroristic threats, harassment, and intimidation” against She’s Alive.
“Those means are especially improper because they have been deployed as part of a calculated campaign by a trained military/private-security operative with access to an arsenal of military-grade weaponry, rather than through any legitimate commercial or legal process,” the court documents read.
It accuses him of being “emboldened” and “relentless” in his threats against She’s Alive since Parton’s death.
“He has individually, and through his associates, made repeated written threats to Ms. Parton’s staff, legal and business advisers, and others,” it reads. “These were not ordinary workplace disputes or heated words; they were deliberate threats from a self-proclaimed heavily armed, former security operative with a military-contractor background.”
The court documents showcase a series of text messages and emails She’s Alive says were sent by Seaver, starting just before Parton’s death. The messages begin with threats to destroy Parton’s brand, and then after her death, depict Seaver reveling in his newfound fame and calling himself an “international arms dealer and mercenary.”
In one message written on Sept. 1 and included in the court documents, he said: “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or f—— pay me.”
Seaver also claimed that he worked for private military contractors overseas during the Iraq War and used that experience as part of these threats, according to the complaint.
In another text message, he alleges that he “just sold 29 million dollars worth of ammo to Haiti.”
The messages have resulted in Parton’s trusts and estates attorney leaving and employees of She’s Alive resigning, according to the court documents. The entity has also had to hire private security for its employees, including at their homes, according to the documents.
In a prerecorded video announcing Parton’s death last month, Seaver said that his video was “something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality.”
He described it as “an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus.”
Parton wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that earned a total of more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams.
