The parents of a child actress who portrayed a young Tina Turner in a biopic about the singer wrongfully took money from their daughter for their own personal benefit, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled this week.
Judge Samantha Jessner found true the theft claim that Rae’ven Larrymore Kelly filed along with other causes of action against her parents, Phyllis Larrymore-Kelly and Kevin Kelly, and Kevin Kelly Enterprises, in May 2015.
Phyllis Kelly is her daughter’s former business manager.
“Defendants admit they converted the money for their own use, resulting in plaintiff’s damages,” Jessner wrote in the brief opinion. “Defendants received the money on plaintiff”s behalf as her parents and managers and did not report the income to plaintiff.”
Although the judge’s opinion does not state the amount Kelly’s parents took from the actress, her attorneys estimated in their court papers that the loss was $767,610.
In April, Jessner found that Kelly’s parents had admitted many of the allegations against them were true by virtue of their failure to comply with a court order to properly respond to questions put to them by their daughter’s attorneys.
Kelly’s attorneys have filed a separate motion set to be heard Sept. 23 that seeks to begin the default process against her parents concerning the other claims in the complaint.
Kelly, now 31, played a young Tina Turner in 1993 in “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” She also had roles in the film “A Time to Kill,” with Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock, and in the Sam Waterston television series “I’ll Fly Away.”
Kelly’s resume includes appearances in the television shows “ER,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Roseanne.”
Her fiance, Sean Dinwoodie, also is a plaintiff in the case.
Kelly’s suit alleged her parents used her income “as their personal slush fund to subsidize their own lifestyle and expenses and to invest in their own projects.”
Phyllis Kelly forged her daughter’s signature on bank signature cards and on checks endorsed to the actress, the suit alleged.
When Kelly objected and in February 2015 demanded an accounting of her income, her mother “flatly refused” and said, “I should have aborted you,” according to the lawsuit.
The Kellys disapproved of their daughter’s relationship with Dinwoodie and told his mother that he was “gay or bixsexual” and “produces pornography.”
Kelly’s parents told the actress’ hairdresser that she is “performing in pornographic videos” and told friends and relatives that she has AIDS, according to the suit, which further alleged that they told a family friend that their daughter was “doing illegal drugs.”
