Even In death, Casey Kasem — the beloved radio icon — is at the center of a brutal three-decade old family feud dominated by greed, spite, intrigue and bitter recriminations.
In opposite corners — and at each other's throats — are Casey's widow, Jeanne, and three children from his first marriage who are suing each other for wrongful death — with accusations on each side that the other hastened the legend's demise.
The stunning new charges come as police in Washington open a death investigation case more than four years after Casey's death.
Now, in her most comprehensive interview since her husband's 2014 passing, Jeanne reacted to step-daughter Kerri who recently declared on a "48 Hours" episode: “Jean killed my father. What she did led to his death.”
Countering those charges exclusively to "All Rise," Jeanne claimed that Kerri was part of an evil plot — along with members of the Church of Scientology — to get their hands on his reputed $80 million fortune and cash in on a $2.1 million dollar life insurance policy!
“It was pre-planned,” Jeannie told Dylan Howard. “It’s very clear and it’s very convincing that they wanted to seek physical control of Casey, human traffic him and trap him in a hospital, chemically restrain him and kill him.”
Casey died in June 2014 in Washington state, where Jeanne took him after removing him from a medical facility in Southern California where he was receiving around-the-clock care.
The longtime "American Top 40" host had a form of dementia and severe bedsores when he died.
In a second "All Rise" exclusive, Howard delves beyond the portrait painted of Steven Avery in Netflix’s hit true crime documentary "Making A Murderer."
Is he a seemingly harmless man who was wrongfully convicted in the 2005 rape and murder of local photographer Teresa Halbach?
According to legal documents exclusively obtained by "All Rise", the truth about Steven’s threatening nature and violence towards women can finally exposed — revealing the 56-year-old father-of-four wrote menacing letters to his ex-wife and he has been accused of assault by more than one woman.
But the allegations and the letters were deemed inadmissible by a judge, so they were never submitted as evidence in his trial for the murder of Teresa Halbach.
We probe Steven's former lawyer, Jerry Buting, about these new revelations — and his former client's new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, who has claimed Steven should get a new trial because of Jerry's "ineffective assistance of counsel."
Guests:
Jeanne Kasem, widow of Casey Kasem
Jerry Buting, former lawyer for Steven Avery
*** UPDATE AFTER BROADCAST ***
The lawyer who faced criticism from Jeanne Kasem in this episode of “All Rise” provided this statement to producers after the broadcast.
“Every action that I took in the course of the litigation was authorized by the court pursuant to court order and that Jean’s wild conspiracy theories have already been dismissed by the federal court in Washington who entered judgment against her and found that she had no evidence to back up her claims,” attorney Troy Martin said.
Mr. Martin also denied that he is Scientologist, as Jeanne claimed.
“I am not a member of the church of scientology. I’m Jewish. One of my employees was a scientologist and they asked me to speak at his funeral.”
