SERENA Williams’ stepmom, who’s in $500k debt and on the verge of losing the tennis star’s childhood home, has sensationally hit back at money demands from her main creditor’s lawyers.
Lakeisha Juanita Williams, 43, has called them “grossly unreasonable” and “frivolous”, and insists the investigation into her messy finances was uncalled for.
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It’s ironic that the estranged spouse of dementia-hit tennis legend coach ‘King Richard‘ uses the term “frivolous” in the latest legal drama, as she has been accused of frittering away hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lakeisha, who is 37 years younger than 80-year-old Richard, allegedly forged his signature [she claimed at his request] on the title deeds of his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to take out a $255,000 mortgage with ‘hard lender’ David Simon.
In court docs, Simon’s lawyers accused her of blowing the lot on a failed trucking business and spending every last cent on “fast food and frivolities.”
Simon has been trying to claw his money back through the courts since 2017, which now stands at $513,213 including interest, and wants the house auctioned off to pay back his debt.
Lakeisha had tried to delay the property’s foreclosure by declaring herself bankrupt three times, but two of those attempts have been tossed out, and now the third hangs in the balance.
She is adamant that she can repay the debt back in $8,000 monthly installments over five years.
Now, Simon’s law firm DGIM Law also wants their legal fees and expenses paid by Lakeisha.
This totals $37,340, and that’s just for the last six months, but Lakeisha has replied “vehemently objecting to the demand”, stating that they’re “unreasonable” and “unnecessary.”
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Lakeisha was particularly irked by an investigation into her and her aunt Betty Downing’s finances – called a Rule 2004 Examination – which she says proved fruitless.
Downing also lives at the four-bed property, which has been in the Williams family since 1995.
The court doc seen by The U.S. Sun read: “Amounts charged toward a frivolous Rule 2004 Examination of both the debtor and her aunt, Betty Downing, who is a non-party to this case. No ‘state’ secrets were revealed.
“Debtor objects to the fees requested on the basis that such fees are untimely and grossly unreasonable… amounts charged for numerous reviews, correspondences, emails, meetings with para-professional, client meetings, attorney’s meetings, and numerous telephonic calls to discuss the status of case were excessive and unnecessary.”
STATE OF HOME
A summary of the legal fees submitted to the court by DGIM Law includes $350 to send emails to Simon and Lakeisha’s attorney and $250 for a phone call to Simon.
One of the highest amounts is for court appearances with attorneys demanding at least $1,000 each time, even though, as Lakeisha’s team points out, “all hearings, in this case, took place via zoom.”
The next hearing is on December 1 as the topsy-turvy legal case rumbles on.
The home has fallen into a state of disrepair, with a heavily leaking roof, and Simon claims it’s uninsurable with the property only worth half of its true value of $1.4 million.
Photos first shown by The U.S. Sun revealed how shambolic the estate had become.
The roof looked like it had been haphazardly repaired dozens of times while there was an abandoned truck on the property and crumbling outbuildings.
Richard, whose life story was told in the movie King Richard starring Will Smith, was previously alleged to be suffering from irreparable “brain damage” and “dementia.”
Court documents from 2017 show Serena was accused of telling her stepmom to leave the family home.
Lakeisha told a judge that a letter from the tennis star’s lawyers “threatened to change the locks” if she did not vacate the property with the young son she shares with Richard.
The six-time US Open champ did not answer those claims at the time.
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