Richard Simmons’ longtime housekeeper scored a small victory in court as she continues to fight the late fitness guru’s brother over control of his estate, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge appointed Teresa Muro, who lived with Richard for nearly 36 years, as interim successor co-trustee of Richard’s trust.
Teresa filed a petition in September that claimed she was wrongfully removed from her role as co-trustee of Richard’s estate following the entertainer’s death. Richard died on July 13 at the age of 76.
In court documents, Teresa claimed Richard had left instructions for his estate, worth millions, to be handled by his brother, Leonard Simmons, and Teresa.
Teresa claimed that Leonard had her sign paperwork, while she was grieving Richard’s death, that removed her as co-trustee and left Leonard in charge of everything. Leonard denied the accusations.
He claimed Teresa was fully informed of the documents she was signing at the time.
At the recent hearing, on Wednesday, December 4, the judge did not make a final decision on Teresa’s petition to be reinstated as co-trustee, but he did appoint her as interim co-trustee until a hearing can be held next month.
As In Touch first reported, weeks after Teresa filed her petition, she asked the court to also suspend Leonard’s powers as trustee of the estate.
She accused Leonard of making decisions, including working with an alleged estranged manager of Richard’s, that she felt her late friend would not be pleased with.
Her lawyer added, “It appears that Leonard is actively preparing to dispose of numerous of Richard’s personal effects, as he has retained a real estate agent to market Richard’s home where all of his personal effects were maintained and has likely made arrangements to remove Richard’s personal effects from the premises so it can be marketed. Leonard is thus likely also making arrangements to imminently sell, donate, or otherwise dispose of Richard’s personal effects without Teresa’s input, as was envisioned by Richard in the Trust.”
For his part, Leonard claimed Richard was not estranged from the manager in question at the time of his death. He also claimed that Teresa had taken jewelry from Richard’s home after his death and failed to return it.
Leonard’s lawyer wrote, “Although Teresa has her own home, she had a room in Richard’s house that she refused to vacate after his death. When she finally did leave, 76 days later, she took almost $1 million of Richard’s jewelry and other valuable pieces of fine art, which she has refused to return.”
His lawyer continued, “She participated in the effort to misappropriate the Trust’s intellectual property. Teresa’s counsel has not informed the Trustee whether Teresa intends to keep this property or return it. If she decides to try to keep it, the Trustee will have no choice but to file a petition to recover it, which is a clear reason she should not be Co-Trustee.”
Teresa has not responded to the claims.
“Since voluntarily declining to serve as Co-Trustee, Teresa has demonstrated strong animosity towards Leonard, for reasons that he does not understand, and having the two of them serve as Co-Trustees would be counter-productive and almost certainly lead to the appointment of a corporate trustee,” Leonard added in his filing.
The case is ongoing.
