Family fortune center stage in family feud

(11/11/05 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- A woman says she doesn't know where her husband is, or when she'll be allowed to see him again. Is it a battle over a man's best interests -- or simply a tug of war over his fortune?

Millions of dollars may be at stake. It's a family struggle playing out in the Harris County court system. Cases in family courts always have a lot of gray areas. This case also has a lot of gray hair.

The case involves an older couple - he's 83, she's 61. They've know each other for a decade and been married since January. But they've been kept apart by court order since Thursday morning.

Dawn Whatley insisted, "We got married because I love him. I love him and he loves me."

Dawn is either a woman terribly worried about her husband - or a former care taker out for a big estate.

Perry Whatley is either an 82-year-old happily married, but ill man, or a man who according to his court appointed guardian, "doesn't know that he's married, and doesn't know if he's not married."

"I now he's devastated now," Dawn said. "He's probably a wreck right now. He's used to me being by his side 24 hours a day."

Dawn met Perry when she while was a care taker for Perry's former wife. Two years after Perry's wife died Dawn and Perry married. It made Dawn the beneficiary of large estate, knocked his niece and nephew out of it and led the whole family to court.

"Money. That's all it's about. It's money," Dawn asserted.

This spring Dawn and Perry went to Boston for health care.

Who's right, who's wrong and who should control all that money will be decided at the Harris County Probate courts. What is undeniable is that Mr. and Mrs. Whatley are married and haven't seen each other since Thursday.

At 5:30am Thursday, unnamed court appointees with court order showed up at a Boston nursing home. They took Mr. Whatley and brought him back to Houston but wouldn't tell anyone where they were taking him. Mrs. Whatley, in a Boston hotel, found out and raced back to Houston herself.

"This is underhanded and the government's not supposed to be underhanded," Dawn said.

She still doesn't know where he is.

Jimmy Walker, Mr. Whatley's court-appointed guardian, would only tell us, "He is in a safe, secure location that's appropriate for him." In reading the extensive family court papers, there are dueling filings about how competent Mr. Whatley is. His court appointed guardian wouldn't even allow us to talk to him by phone.

Mr. Whatley's niece, Jeanie Anderson, said only, "I love my uncle and I'm not interested in gossiping about him."

She too wouldn't tell us where he was.
(Copyright © 2005, KTRK-TV)

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