By David Cázares Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 12:24 a.m. Aug. 29, 2000
Touched by an Oklahoma woman's dying wish to reward their love for Elián González, the boy's Miami relatives have hired a lawyer to represent their interests in the battle over her estate.
But her decision to leave the family half her $500,000 estate -- a decision made just before she committed suicide -- is being challenged in court by her relatives, who claim she lacked the mental capacity to make such decisions.
Before Anne Katherine Abernathy, 57, died July 21 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, she wrote a four-page letter that changed her will to remove her relatives and friends. In their place, she picked Elián's great-uncle Lázaro González, his wife, Angela, and their
daughter Marisleysis. The González family deserved the gift, Abernathy said, because they treated Elián "with such love" before he returned to Cuba with his father.
Abernathy also designated as her beneficiaries members of the Amirault family of Massachusetts, who in 1987 were convicted of molesting children. A judge later said because of prosecutors' suggestive and leading interview techniques, it was impossible to tell wither the accusers were telling
the truth.
Manny Diaz, a lawyer for Lázaro González, said the family was touched by the gesture and Abernathy had acknowledged their love for Elián. Now, the big questions: Would the family take the money and, if so, what would they do with it?
"The answer to the first question is yes," Diaz said, adding that the Miami relatives have hired an attorney to represent them in Oklahoma. "The answer to the second is, I don't know."
Diaz said that the family likely would want to honor Elián's late mother for trying to win him a better future in the United States, and do something to remember Elián.
If Abernathy's relatives and friends have their way, that won't happen. They say she had been mentally incapacitated for years. Second cousin Robert Abernathy went to court requesting that he be appointed to administer the estate.
Whether Abernathy's relatives get their way could be determined today, when Pottawatomie County District Judge Glenn Carter is expected to appoint a special administrator to handle matters until a full-time administrator is appointed.
For the court, the key issue is whether Abernathy was able to make decisions for herself before she died, at a time when she was under obvious emotional distress. Her suicide came hours after the death of her 91-year-old mother, whom she had taken care of for two years.
University of Miami law professor John T. Gaubatz, an expert in estates, said a jury may well decide not to respect Abernathy's wishes.
"I assume that the family will request a jury because juries are notoriously suspect of wills that give property to people outside the family," Gaubatz said. "The allegation will be that she wasn't of sound mind and therefore she lacked the capacity to really form wishes in the
proper sense."
This story was supplemented with information from The Associated Press. David Cázares can be reached at dcazares@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.
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