Dolly Parton's estate subpoenas bodycam footage of Bryan Seaver

The estate of Dolly Parton has subpoenaed body camera footage from Vanderbilt Medical Center of what it describes as an altercation between police and the singer's nephew, Bryan Seaver, the former head of her security detail and now the defendant in the estate's lawsuit against him.

The subpoena, issued to Vanderbilt University on October 27, seeks footage from 1 a.m. on August 24 to 1 a.m. on August 25, the day before Parton died. It is the newest step in a case the estate filed in September, weeks after Parton's death on August 25 following a brief battle with cancer.

Seaver has been under a temporary restraining order since September 23, when Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles of Davidson County Chancery Court granted temporary relief against him and his security company. A hearing on whether those restrictions should continue is set for November 3 at 11 a.m. before the same judge.

How the dispute began

Seaver is the son of Parton's sister Cassie and ran security for her through Squadron Augmented Protection Services LLC, often shortened to SAPS, for more than 20 years. She's Alive LLC, the company that oversees Parton's professional interests, terminated those services in mid-September and filed suit on September 22.

Danny Nozell, Parton's longtime manager, runs She's Alive, which accused Seaver and SAPS of using intimidating messages and threatened damage to Parton's business relationships to extract money. Text messages filed with the complaint have Seaver vowing to "destroy the entire brand" and threatening to take his story to Billboard Magazine. In another, he offered to set up a podcast aimed at Parton's brand partnerships unless he was paid.

I'm not an entertainment person. I'm a killer. I sold 27 million $ worth of ammunition and arms to the Haitian Police on the day Dolly died. Entertainment is not my game.

The email, sent on September 3 to Parton's longtime attorney, ran through Seaver's military service and his work as a contractor, including what he described as a career spent breaking things and spying on African and Arab leaders. He closed by asking for a line of communication, writing that he expected the attorney knew where all the bodies are buried, and suggesting dinner.

The order bars Seaver and SAPS from contacting specified She's Alive personnel, attorneys and business partners. It also keeps him off certain properties and requires him to stay roughly 1,000 feet from protected individuals. A temporary restraining order can issue quickly on a limited record and can be revisited once both sides have been heard.

Seaver's account of the texts

Seaver disputed that he had threatened employees or business partners in a sworn response described by the Associated Press on October 13, casting some of his exchanges with Nozell as private messages between longtime friends who were angry and grieving. He also said his company was owed more than $250,000 by Herschend Family Entertainment for completed security work.

Seaver's response, which Whiskey Riff said it obtained and reviewed, says the line about destroying the brand referred to Herschend Family Entertainment, which operates Dollywood and Parton's new Songteller Hotel. He says he had privately warned Nozell that the company was destroying Dollywood's brand. After Parton's death, by his account, Nozell and her team discussed setting up a longform podcast interview for him.

Other messages he filed show the exchanges staying cordial after the words the estate now calls threats. Discussing his sudden fame in one of them, he told Nozell he was not a media person but "literally an international arms dealer and mercenary." Nozell hearted the message and replied, "You should promote that." The estate's filing quotes the same message going on: "All I do is warfare. Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do."

The attorney's exit, disputed

The estate says the attorney quit because of threats from Seaver. Seaver says he was told to contact the lawyer about a problem getting his security company paid by the estate. His messages were impatient and rude, he acknowledges, and he says he afterward had a call with Pinnacle Bank, which is handling the estate, asking that his company keep providing security at Parton's property.

When Seaver asked why the attorneys had quit, Nozell answered that he did not know what was happening, according to the text messages filed with Seaver's response.

Nozell added in the same message that attorneys were taking a lot of meetings. Seaver filed the exchange as part of his argument that the departure had nothing to do with him.

Seaver says he was in Haiti when he was told his company had been replaced as security for Parton's properties, and that the replacement crew arrived and began cutting and sawing gates and chains. He advised his employees to "just walk away," and the handover happened without incident.

Service of process and delay

She's Alive told the court that attempts to serve Seaver with papers had been frustrated, and the filings described a no-trespassing sign and barbed wire draped across the handrails at his house. His attorneys asked for more time to prepare a response. Whether any of it amounted to deliberate evasion is contested.

The hearing was first expected in early October and was then moved to October 20. It came off the calendar again when both sides agreed to a delay so the estate's lawyers could answer Seaver's latest memorandum, Whiskey Riff reported on October 19.

The estate's accusations have not been adjudicated, and the November 3 hearing concerns interim restrictions rather than the merits of the suit.

A tribute without the nephew

ABC aired a two-hour live special on October 21 called "CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton," staged at Belmont University's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville. The Country Music Association and Belmont pledged a portion of the proceeds to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. That donation came to $1 million.

Amy Grant, Ashley McBryde, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Ella Langley, Lukas Nelson, Vince Gill and Reba McEntire were among the performers. Seaver was not there.

What Seaver said afterward

Seaver was the family member who announced Parton's death, in a video posted to her social media accounts on August 25. Whiskey Riff reported that Parton had hand-selected him for it and that the rest of the family approved. One Parton family member has since said there is no feud.

The special came close to two months after Parton's death, a stretch in which the allegations against Seaver and the restraining order had run alongside the public mourning. He wrote about the broadcast on social media.

I was not invited. Nor was my daughter, Dolly's songwriting, guitar playing, claw hammer finger pickin' progeny. The rest of my entire family was invited. A few attended. My kids and I were told not to attend.

The altercation does not appear in earlier filings, and the agency whose officers appear in the footage has not been named.

In his sworn response, Seaver rejected the company's reading of the messages and said he did not want the dispute to harm her legacy. The claim that his company is owed more than $250,000 is part of his defense, and no court has awarded him that sum.

Chancellor Myles is to take up whether longer interim restrictions are appropriate. The merits of the suit, including the money Seaver says he is owed, may require additional litigation.

The hearing on November 3 is the next scheduled step in the case, and what the estate expects the Vanderbilt footage to show has not been described publicly.