DA fam feud
THE MOTHER of late Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson says she was stiffed of a promised portion of her son’s seven-figure estate when her daughter-in-law coerced the cancer-stricken prosecutor into signing a revised will on his deathbed.
The family feud was exposed in a court filing by Clara Thompson, who claimed Lu-Shawn trashed an earlier version of the will providing mom with a fair share of millions of dollars in assets.
“Lu-Shawn made it her business to obtain and destroy the original of Kenneth’s prior will, and to have him execute a new will less than two weeks prior to his death,” Clara Thompson charged in Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court.
Kenneth Thompson, diagnosed with colorectal cancer in April, was “suffering from the tremendous physical and mental complications” when he signed the new will on Sept. 27, the court filing alleged.
Twelve days later, he was dead.
“It appeared that (LuShawn’s) biggest concern was not the welfare of her dying husband, but rather, ensuring that she was the recipient of his estate to the exclusion of any of his other family members,” Clara Thompson charged.
Clara Thompson’s filing, first reported by DNAinfo.com, also claimed her son was considering a divorce over his wife’s continued wild spending habits — even as his health continued to fail.
“Kenneth found little solace and compassion in Lu-Shawn at this time,” the mom claimed in court papers. “Lu-Shawn’s unbridled spending created tremendous tension between them, indeed, so much so, that in the last months of his life Kenneth had stopped speaking with LuShawn.”
Lu-Shawn Bendow-Thompson, left to raise son Kenny, 9, and 12-year-old daughter Kennedy after her husband’s death, denied all the allegations made by her mother-in-law.
“Unfortunately, when money is involved with family, this is the kind of thing that happens,” she said Wednesday. “All this does is take away from my husband’s legacy.
“Now I have to go to court for this. These are all lies. Hurt people hurt people. I wish them luck.”
A Jan. 19 court date was set, with Lu-Shawn and her lawyer expected to surrender the original 2008 will.
The Thompsons were married in 1999, and their son rested his head on his mom’s shoulder during his father’s funeral.
Thompson’s sister, Catherine Gaskin, backed her mother’s claims about martial discord.
“One problem was a continuing theme, which was (LuShawn’s) spending,” she wrote in an affidavit. “Ken said she just did not seem to understand the value of money.”
Clara Thompson, one of the first female NYPD officers and often cited as an inspiration for her son, expressed her disbelief over the contents of the September will signed by her son.
“Kenneth had always promised that he would take care of me financially,” she said in court papers. “Having watched me work tirelessly to take care of him and his siblings after his father and I divorced, Kenneth did not want me to ever worry about money in my later years.”