John Singleton’s daughter Justice files for restraining order against her father’s old friend after he ‘threatened’ her… judge denies initial request and sets hearing date
More family drama in the wake of John Singleton’s death following a massive stroke in April.
Singleton’s daughter, Justice, filed for a restraining order on Friday against Avance Smith, a close and old friend of the Boyz N The Hood filmmaker.
But, by later in the afternoon, TMZ reported that the judge denied the initial request, for now.
A hearing has been set for the end of the month to determine if Smith will be court ordered to stay away from the oldest of Singleton’s seven children.
More legal action! John Singleton’s daughter, Justice, filed a restraining order against her father’s old friend, Avance Smith; the pair are pictured together in a Instagram photo
Court documents show Justice, 26, filed the restraining order for protection. She claimed Smith broke into her father’s locked office and took some of his valuables.
She also accused him of threatening her, in person and by text, while her father was in the hospital in April.
Justice believes Smith is ‘uncontrollable’ and that she fears he could be physically violent.
It’s widely known that Singleton and Smith were so close that they commonly referred to each other as cousins.
Over the years, from time to time, Smith was hired to help work security for Singleton.
To be determined: The judge denied Justice Singleton’s initial request for a restraining order, but a hearing has been set for later in the month; she is pictured in Cannes, France in May
The filing comes one day after the famed director’s mother, Shelia Ward, made an emergency request to the courts to control his assets, said to be worth about $35 million at the time of his death.
She reportedly was prompted to make the request after the break-in at her son’s office.
Singleton’s seven children are also caught up in a legal conflict over his estate after Ward filed his will in probate court last month. It leaves all of his assets to Justice, his firstborn.
But the will was drafted in 1993, before Justice’s six siblings were born.
Under California law, the other six kids may have a legal claim to a portion of his assets, unless the unborn children were specifically disinherited, which isn’t the case here.
The claims: Court documents show Justice (left) filed the restraining order for protection. She claimed Smith broke into her father’s locked office and took some of his valuables, and that he threatened her, in person and by text, while her father was in the hospital in April: Justice is pictured with her dad and sister Hadara in October 2005
In another dramatic turn, some of Singleton’s baby mothers and their children have hired a private investigator to look into his death, specifically the hours leading up to the time he checked himself into the Los Angeles hospital after returning from a trip to Costa Rica.
At this point no one can account as to how he was brought to the LA hospital; he reportedly did not drive himself to the facility and there’s no Uber or Lyft receipts.
The Oscar-nominated director suffered a major stroke on April 17, after which he was put into a medically-induced coma.
His was taken off life support and died at the age of 51 about two weeks later.
RIP: Singleton suffered a major stroke April 17 and passed away about two weeks later; he is pictured in February about two-and-a-half months before his stroke
