Dolly Parton’s estate is demanding police bodycam footage from the hospital where the country legend died.
She’s Alive, LLC — the company managing the “Jolene” singer’s affairs — filed a subpoena seeking “a copy of all body-worn camera video footage for all officers present” at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25, according to court documents. The estate claims the recordings will show an “altercation with police personnel” involving Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver.
Sources close to Seaver pushed back on that characterization in comments to the outlet. He was not cited by authorities, they said, and had arrived at the medical center only to handle arrangements for transporting his aunt’s body to the funeral home. What happened was merely a “simple discussion,” not an altercation, the outlet was told. An insider added that police allegedly treated Seaver like a “fugitive” upon his arrival.
The bodycam dispute is the latest flashpoint in an escalating legal war between Parton’s estate and her nephew, who until recently served as her head of security. Less than a month after Parton’s death, She’s Alive, LLC terminated Seaver from that position. A Tennessee judge subsequently granted a temporary restraining order against Seaver and his security company, barring them from coming within 1,000 feet of Parton’s Nashville offices and from interfering with her business operations.
Earlier this month, Seaver asked the court to delay the restraining order hearing so he could secure legal representation.
The estate’s lawsuit against Seaver, first reported, accuses him of intimidating and harassing staffers at Parton’s Nashville hotel and museum. Seaver has contested those allegations, claiming the messages in question were private exchanges with a longtime friend about a business dispute and were taken out of context.
Seaver is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 2.
Parton died on Aug. 25 following what her estate later revealed was a secret battle with cancer. She was 80. The “9 to 5” singer had kept her illness private, and her death prompted an outpouring of grief from fans and fellow artists across the music industry.
The subpoena for Vanderbilt-Ingram footage suggests the estate is building a broader case around Seaver’s conduct in the immediate aftermath of his aunt’s death. The hospital, part of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center system, is one of Nashville’s premier cancer treatment facilities and the place where Parton spent her final hours.
The competing narratives — estate claims of an altercation versus Seaver allies’ insistence of a routine conversation — leave the bodycam footage as potential crucial evidence in the ongoing proceedings. Neither Seaver nor representatives for She’s Alive, LLC have publicly commented beyond the court filings and sourced statements.
The restraining order hearing, once delayed, is expected to move forward in coming weeks.