Mom of 17-year-old charged with selling father's stuff disputes values, facts

Posted
The mother of a 17-year-old boy charged over the weekend with allegedly selling more than $10,000 of his father's property while the older man is in jail said she disputes the facts presented in a report by the Manning Police Department. James E. King III of LeGrande Street in Manning was charged Saturday with breach of trust with fraudulent intent of more than $2,000 after the boy's grandparents told police that more than $10,000 of the boy's father's property was sold on the Internet. James E. King Jr., 50, was arrested in August at the home on multiple drug charges and assault and battery shortly after the younger King showed police video of his father manufacturing methamphetamine. Beverly King said Tuesday afternoon that the property in question also belongs to her, and that she advised her son to sell it. "This is marital property, belonging to me and my husband," she said. "I told my son that he could sell it to recoup some of the money that his father owes him." Beverly King said she thinks the charges are "preposterous." "When (King Jr.) stole property from me in Lexington, I was told there was nothing they could do because it was marital property," she said. "I also have a letter from (King Jr.) telling me I could sell the property, and I told my son to sell it." Beverly King said she would be presenting a letter from her husband asserting such at a hearing for her son on Oct. 10 in general sessions court. "The values are also just preposterous," she said. "Those values came straight from my husband, not from any real value the items had. The most valuable thing my son sold was the utility trailer, and he welded that himself during a project."