Bobbi Kristina Brown with Nick Gordon (Facebook)
Nick Gordon, the former boyfriend of Bobbi Kristina Brown is civilly responsible for the death of the late star. Brown’s estate attorney made the announcement today.
The news comes more than one year after Brown died at age 22.
11 Alive reported a Fulton County Georgia Superior Court judge made the decision after Gordon failed to show up for a hearing in the wrongful death suit Brown’s estate filed last year.
It was the second time the defendant did not appear for a hearing in the case.
Because Gordon failed to appear in court twice, Bedford said anything the plaintiff alleged is admissible through omission.
“In court today, we finally finished a long journey for justice for Bobbi Kristina Brown,” Brown’s estate attorney R. David Ware said outside of court. “The court agrees with us, by striking Mr. Gordon’s answer that he is legally responsible for her death. The only thing left to prove is the value of her life. We intend to do that.”
Now, a jury will decide how much damages Brown’s conservator, Bedelia Hargrove, will receive. Hargrove filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Gordon in Aug. 2015, which sought $50 million in damages.
The judgement pleased Brown’s aunt Leolah Brown, but she was frustrated and wanted to “see some justice.”
“It’s been a long time,” she told the news station. “They should have been gotten him. He should have been arrested. I’m angry. I’m angry because I want to see some justice. Something has to happen and it has to happen soon.”
But currently, there is no criminal case against Gordon. Officials have not charged him, as that investigation is “still ongoing,” a source at the Fulton County District Attorney’s office told People.
“This won’t change anything in the criminal case,” the insider said. “Generally speaking, it tends to [be] the other way around – a criminal conviction is used in a civil case.”
Atlanta Black Star reported Brown died in July 2015 after a friend found her unresponsive in a bathtub. The daughter of late singer Whitney Houston later slipped into a coma and never fully recovered.
Brown’s family alleged Gordon injected the aspiring singer with a “toxic mixture,” something his lawyers denied.
