Did Judge Help Lawyers Loot Rosa Parks' Estate?

In what the Free Press calls a "highly unusual move," a lawyer has filed a lawsuit against a Wayne County probat judge and two lawyers who handled the estate of Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement.

According to reporter David Ashenfelter, attorney Stephen G. Cohen said in court filings that Judge Freddie Burton Jr. conspired with probate lawyers John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., enabling the pair to rack up more than $507,000 in mostly unnecessary legal fees that drained Parks’ estate of its cash, leaving it $88,000 in debt.

“Chase and Jefferson, together with Judge Burton, illegally, maliciously and wrongfully conspired… for the illegal purpose of raiding Mrs. Parks’ estate of its value,” Cohen said in a 38-page probate petition.

The documents added: “Chase and Jefferson, together with Judge Burton, illegally, maliciously and wrongfully conspired… for the illegal purpose of raiding Mrs. Parks’ estate of its value,” Cohen said in a 38-page probate petition.