{"id":322105,"date":"2026-11-06T02:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322105\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T02:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:00:25","slug":"dolly-partons-manager-moves-to-drop-complaint-accusing-late-singers-nephew-of-threatening-estate-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322105\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton’s manager moves to drop complaint accusing late singer’s nephew of threatening estate | Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton<\/a> \u2019s longtime manager moved Thursday to drop a complaint that accused the late singer\u2019s nephew who acted as her head of security with threatening her estate and its employees.<\/p>\n

The manager, Danny Nozell, who runs She\u2019s Alive, an entity founded to manage and protect Parton\u2019s estate, had secured a temporary restraining order<\/a> against Bryan Seaver and his security company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, in September. Nozell was seeking to turn the order into a permanent injunction against Seaver.<\/p>\n

A very brief filing in a Tennessee court Thursday gives no reason why the complaint is being withdrawn.<\/p>\n

It says only that a proposed order was being drafted for the judge\u2019s approval to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled again. A court filing from a day earlier said the two sides had reached an agreement, but that gave no details either.<\/p>\n

The first public hearing on the matter, pushed several times over the course of a month, was slated for Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment from lawyers for She\u2019s Alive, Seaver and his company.<\/p>\n

The case exposed a serious rift in Parton’s inner circle that spilled into public view in the weeks after her death.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s Alive terminated Seaver and SAPS in early September, and the following week petitioned for the restraining order against him, arguing that his \u201cterrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition said that starting shortly before Parton\u2019s Aug. 25 death<\/a> and continuing after, Seaver made threats and aimed them directly at She\u2019s Alive\u2019s \u201cpersonnel, counsel, and business partners. In writing, he vowed to \u2018destroy the entire brand.’\u201d<\/p>\n

It says he \u201ccalled himself \u2018literally an international arms dealer and mercenary,\u2019\u201d and said everyone \u201cneeds to be worried about what I might do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In granting the temporary order, Chancellor I\u2019Ashea L. Myles cited Seaver\u2019s \u201cclaimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seaver said<\/a> in court filings that he considered Nozell a close friend and ally before Nozell took out the restraining order.<\/p>\n

In an affidavit, Seaver said text messages Nozell cited as evidence of his threats were a \u201cprivate conversation between two friends who were both frustrated, grieving and discussing strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never threatened physical harm to Mr. Nozell, to any SAL employee, contractor, attorney, advisor, or business partner, or to anyone else associated with SAL,\u201d Seaver said. \u201cI have no intention of doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nCopyright 2026 Maranatha Broadcasting Co., Inc.. All Rights Reserved.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton \u2019s longtime manager moved Thursday to drop a complaint that accused the late singer\u2019s nephew who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,46,130637,299,1681,38,298,44],"class_list":["post-322105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business","tag-courts","tag-dolly-parton-estate-nephew-complaint","tag-economic-policy","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}