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Stan Lee and Keya Morgan pictured in Los Angeles in April 2018.
Stan Lee and Keya Morgan pictured in Los Angeles in April 2018. Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision
Stan Lee and Keya Morgan pictured in Los Angeles in April 2018. Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision

Stan Lee: police probe reports of elder abuse against Marvel mogul

This article is more than 5 years old

Restraining order granted against Lee’s business manager, who is accused of taking advantage of the 95-year-old’s condition

Los Angeles police are investigating reports of elder abuse against Stan Lee that come amid a struggle over the life and fortune of the 95-year-old Marvel Comics mogul, court documents showed on Wednesday.

The investigation was revealed in a restraining order granted against Keya Morgan, who in recent months has been acting as Lee’s business manager and personal adviser.

Morgan has inserted himself into the life of Lee, according to the order. The filing accuses Morgan of taking advantage of Lee’s impaired hearing, vision and judgment, and moving him from his longstanding home and preventing family and associates from contacting him.

Morgan was arrested on Monday for allegedly filing a false police report by calling 911 and saying burglars were in his house, when two detectives and a social worker were conducting a welfare check on Lee.

“I have a very dear friend I take care of who is 95 and um, uh, three unidentified people have gone inside this house and locked the door and locked his security out and I’m very, very scared that they’re harming him,” Morgan said on the call made on 30 May, according to a transcript filed with the restraining order.

Morgan’s arrest is the latest and most dramatic move in the fight that has emerged over Lee’s business and estimated $50m (£37m) fortune since his wife of 69 years, Joan, died last year.

Police have been investigating reports of elder abuse against Lee since at least February, and had issued an emergency order keeping Morgan from Lee even before Wednesday’s order was issued.

For decades, Lee has been revered for his role in co-creating the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man and other major Marvel comic book characters.

Morgan is a memorabilia dealer and Marilyn Monroe expert and a friend of Lee’s daughter, JC Lee. Since February, he has increasingly taken personal control of Lee’s life and household, taking advantage of Lee’s age to influence and isolate him, Lee’s attorney Tom Lallas said in the restraining order request.

He got rid of many who had worked for Lee, including Lallas, who had been helping with Lee’s estate planning and other financial matters before being pushed out, and has now returned. Morgan prevented friends, employees and relatives, eventually even JC Lee, from contact with Lee, police said in reports included with the restraining order.

Detectives said in the reports that Lee acknowledged that Morgan had helped him, but would frequently forget his name when talking about him.

The reports said they had twice done welfare checks on Lee, once in February and again in May, when Morgan was not home. During the May visit, Morgan returned and was denied entry. After his 911 call reporting burglars, he again called 911 to say a security guard was being threatening and aggressive.

Morgan was released on Monday after his arrest. He is already serving two years of probation for making criminal threats in an unrelated dispute, and he has been summoned back to court to determine whether he has violated the probation.

A day before the arrest, Lee appeared in a video posted to his Twitter account declaring that Morgan was his only partner and representative, and anyone claiming otherwise was lying.

“Anybody else who claims to be my rep is just making that story up,” Lee says in the video.

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