Brown’s partner ‘locked out’ of house

JAMES Brown’s lawyer said yesterday the late singer and his partner were not legally married and that she was locked out of his South Carolina home for legal reasons.

Buddy Dallas said Mr Brown’s partner, dancer Tomi Rae Hynie, was already married to a Texas man in 2001 when she married Mr Brown, thus making her marriage to Mr Brown null.

He said Ms Hynie later annulled the previous marriage, but she and Mr Brown never remarried.

“I suppose it would mean she was, from time to time, a guest in Mr Brown’s home,” Dallas said.

On Monday, after Mr Brown died in Atlanta, Ms Hynie, 36, found the gates to Brown’s Beech Island, South Carolina, home padlocked and said she was denied access. Ms Hynie argued she has a legal right to live in the home with the couple’s five-year-old son.

Mr Dallas said legal formalities need to be followed, adding that Mr Brown’s estate was left in trust for his children.

The couple had a tumultuous relationship. Mr Brown pleaded guilty in 2004 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an argument with Ms Hynie and was let off with an €850 fine. He was accused of pushing her to the floor and threatening to kill her.